Utah became the first state in the country to pass legislation requiring app store operators to verify users’ ages and require parental consent for minors to download apps.

The App Store Accountability Act is the latest kids online safety bill to head to head to the governors’ desk, as states across the country and the federal legislature have tried to impose a variety of design regulations and age gating requirements to protect minors from online harms. Much of the legislation that has advanced through the states has been blocked in the courts, and the leading bill in Congress failed to pass last year amid concerns that it could limit free expression on the internet. 

Putting the onus on mobile app store operators to verify ages — rather than individual website providers — is something that Meta and other social media sites have pushed in recent months, as legislatures consider a variety of bills that could impose more liability for kids’ safety across the tech industry. Apple reportedly lobbied against a Louisiana bill that would have required it to help enforce age restrictions, but recently voluntarily opted to let parents share their kids’ age ranges with apps. Meta spokesperson Jamie Radice called that “a positive first step,” at the time, but noted that “developers can only apply these age-appropriate protections with a teen’s approval.”

After Utah passed its age verification bill, Meta, Snap, and X applauded the move in a joint statement, and urged Congress to follow suit. “Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child’s age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way,” they write. “The app store is the best place for it, and more than a quarter of states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play.” Apple and Google (which runs the Play Store on Android) did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the bill.

But others, including Chamber of Progress, which counts Meta’s European arm as well as Apple and Google among its corporate backers, warn that the bill could put all users’ privacy and rights at risk. “The Supreme Court has long recognized that age verification requirements, like those in SB 142, chill access to protected speech for everyone and are therefore inconsistent with the First Amendment,” Chamber of Progress legal advocacy counsel Kerry Maeve Sheehan writes in a blog post. SCOTUS is set to weigh in on age verification this year, but in a case that deals specifically with its application to accessing porn sites. “As privacy experts have explained, ‘strict age verification — confirming a user’s age without requiring additional personally identifiable information — is not technically feasible in a manner that respects users’ rights, privacy, and security.’”