The App Store Accountability Act Gets the Problem—and the Policy—Wrong |
Washington’s latest attempt to “fix” the internet—the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA)—is a familiar story: a real concern, a politically appealing response, and a policy design that risks making the underlying problem worse.
There is no dispute that parents should be able to push for better tools to manage how their children engage with digital platforms. Nor is there any question that the current ecosystem is imperfect. But as with earlier legislative efforts like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the issue is not whether parental concerns are legitimate—it is whether the proposed solution is effective and consistent with the broader architecture of a free and open digital economy.
On those terms, ASAA falls short.
The legislation would require app stores to verify the age of users and, in many cases, obtain parental consent before minors can download apps. On paper, that sounds straightforward. In practice, it implies the construction of a system-wide identity verification infrastructure that reaches far beyond the limited objective of protecting children. Instead it would reshape how all users interact with digital services.
Such a system inevitably requires the collection and retention of sensitive personal data at scale. Lawmakers often assume that age verification can be both reliable and privacy-preserving. But at the level of precision required to enforce legal obligations, those goals are in tension. The more confidence regulators demand, the more intrusive the verification process becomes. The result is not a........