“Children’s online safety is a critical issue and we applaud the Senate Judiciary Committee for dedicating time to this subject,” said Morgan Reed, President of the App Association. “As this committee and other leaders in Congress consider legislation around online safety, the App Association and our members strongly support the passage of comprehensive privacy legislation and amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) to make it easier for parents and guardians to provide consent for their teens to access online websites and apps, as well as to strengthen protections for teens online.

At the same time, today at the state level, proposed legislation around app store age verification would only serve to shield known bad actors in children’s and youth’s privacy by shifting their responsibility for user safety away from them and onto parents, the app stores, and small app companies. Adding a layer of bureaucracy on top of the existing parental control mechanisms available now on smartphones is more likely to bind parents and developers in red tape than to improve parental control features. Our children, teens, and families deserve real solutions that protect privacy as well as access.

The App Association and our members will continue to engage with Members of this Committee across Congress and the new Administration, as well as in statehouses across the country, on this critical issue. 

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About ACT | The App Association & Our 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 or reach out to ACT | The App Association via smartphone or app.