Ahead of Wednesday’s House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing entitled, “The World Wild Web: Examining Harms Online,” ACT | The App Association shared a statement for the record and released the following statement on online safety:
“Protecting America’s children online is a goal we all share, and we’re grateful to the Committee for its leadership in tackling this challenge head-on,” said Morgan Reed, President of ACT | The App Association. “To be effective, solutions must be targeted, practical, and rooted in reality. Certain policy proposals, including those that put the onus for children’s safety entirely on app stores, would not be effective in protecting the most vulnerable internet users. We believe that these policies would shield social media services with a history of malfeasance and shift liability and compliance costs to small app companies via the app stores. They are also based on a mistaken belief that parental controls for smart devices do not exist. Instead of legislating them into existence, the proposals would likely saddle the effective tools that are currently available with stifling red tape.
“Instead, Congress should focus on modernizing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to reflect how social media and other digital products are actually used and ensure that small developers aren’t forced to choose to shut out younger users altogether.”
To be clear: app stores and social media platforms are not the same. Developers across this country are continuously improving parental control tools — not because of government mandates, but because that’s what American families expect. Broad, one-size-fits-all rules will only tie the hands of hard-working innovators and make it more difficult for these small businesses to grow and continue to make our country not just a global leader in tech, but the global leader in tech. Congress should focus on holding the right actors accountable — not punishing the builders of safe, educational, and values-driven applications that improve our lives and help families thrive.
About ACT | The App Association & Members
The App Association is a global trade association for small and medium-sized technology companies. Our members are entrepreneurs, innovators, and independent developers within the global app ecosystem that engage with verticals across every industry. We work with and for our members to promote a policy environment that rewards and inspires innovation while providing resources that help them raise capital, create jobs, and continue to build incredible technology.
For more information, please visit www.actonline.org.