While Meta, Snap and X issued a joint statement praising Utah Bill, Google calls it “about”. Instead of protecting children and giving parents more control, Google Public Policy Director writes on Google Ghanem, legislation “requires app stores to share if a user is a child or teenager with all app developers (effectively millions of individual companies) without the consent of parents or the rules of information. Sold data or use them for other unjust purposes. Both google meta and YouTube have set on fire in the past for allegedly not doing enough to keep its younger users safe on their platforms by pushing video of children to potential predators or keeping teenagers in a loop that makes them feel bad for themselves. Both companies have said they carry strong policies and resources to create healthy experiences on their platforms.
“We welcome the Google concession that they can share age information with app developers, and we agree that this should be done in a way of maintaining intimacy,” says Meta Radice spokesman Jamie Radice. “But with millions of apps in Google app store, and more added every day, it is unclear how they will determine which applications are eligible to receive this data. The simplest way to protect adolescents online is to put parents on top. It is the optimal place for parents to grant permission and turn to the ages of users before ever downloading applications. This method would also defend users’ intimacy, Meta Global Security Capital Antigone Davis wrote in 2023, because “verifying the age of a teenager on the App Store, individual applications would not be required to collect sensitive identification information.” How precisely verifying the ages of users is a major concern for intimacy advocates, but it is one that has not yet been fully worked on some of the legislation. For example, Utah says the App Store operators may use either “available commercial methods that are reasonably created to ensure accuracy”, or other methods to be determined and considered acceptable by state regulators.
“Because developers know best their applications, they are best positioned to determine when and where an age gate can be useful to their users”
Google believes there is “a better way”. For Google, this means that app stores need to provide age securely to developers who “actually need them” – means only for applications that offer dangerous content, and perhaps not for something strange as a weather app. In that way, Google proposes to impose more discretion on app developers, rather than app stores, to determine the appropriate protections to decide for a particular age group. “Because developers know best their applications, they are best positioned to determine when and where an age gate can be useful to their users, and this can evolve over time, this is another reason why an appropriate size approach will not properly protect children,” Ghanem writes. Google is also proposing “clear consequences for developers that violate user trust” doing things such as “improperly access or age signal sharing”.
Apple has similarly raised concerns about potentially excessive data collection. In a white letter announcing steps it would need to help protect children online, including allowing parents to share the age of children with developers, Apple emphasized the importance of collecting only the minimum amount of data to protect the privacy of users.
“Everyone wants to protect children and adolescents online, and make sure they engage with age -appropriate content,” writes Ghanem, “but how it is important.”