As the use of technology expands to ever more parts of our daily lives, policymakers are working to address the challenges of how to protect children online, especially their privacy and data, without hindering technological and business development. On June 25, 2026, Morgan Reed, president of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), joined the Better Business Bureau (BBB) National Program’s congressional briefing “Protecting Children on the Ground: Challenges and Opportunities.” Experts across two panels unpacked the current legislative landscape on children’s online privacy and safety, analyzed enforcement concerns, and discussed the potential impacts for technology developers and businesses.
The first panel’s discussion focused on the constantly shifting patchwork of state privacy laws, the potential establishment of a single, federal framework, and how the privacy debate contrasts with discussions around kids’ safety. During the audience Q&A, ACT’s federal policy manager, Taylor Downs, spoke out on behalf of the small business community. When one panelist claimed that these privacy bills are only enforceable by regulators, Taylor challenged this by pointing out that Texas’s App Store Accountability Act leaves room for private rights of action. This policy leaves small businesses vulnerable to a “sue and settle” system where private entities sue small businesses for an amount just below the cost of trial to force those businesses into expensive settlements.
For the second panel, the panelists focused more heavily on parents’ concerns and developers’ issues with complying with proposed, or even already passed, privacy legislation. One of the key concerns was the disconnect between what people and the policymakers want versus the practical realities of implementation. Morgan highlighted that most of the issues are human related rather than technical, especially the issue of humans bypassing regulations. Even though surveys show that over 90 percent of U.S. parents say that they are concerned about their child’s online safety,[1] 53 percent of parents in the United States would let their child to bypass online age restriction measures.[2]
While legislators have good intentions, their proposals focus on performance and not substance. As Morgan pointed out, “the more friction you add, the less parents [and developers] want to deal with [children’s online privacy and safety protections].” If legislation is too inconvenient to comply with, then parents and developers are going to get frustrated and find ways around the law. Morgan called for data privacy regulations that are low friction, quick to comply with, and low cost.
Morgan also focused on some of the language being used in kids’ online safety bills, especially Texas’s App Store Accountability Act (ASAA). Section 3 of Texas’ ASAA requires that all developers create and implement a system to receive an age verification flag. This implies that any app that collects data—regardless of whether their app targets children— will now need to collect age data or risk violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). For example, a grain silo monitoring app or an app for a pizza delivery service will need to be reconfigured to collect and store data about a user’s age to be in compliance. Additionally, most businesses contract with an independent developer to build their apps, so reconfiguring an app for compliance will be costly. According to one estimate, fully complying with ASAA would cost small businesses with apps a total of about $280 billion in just the first year, with the vast majority of these costs falling on companies with no connection to kids’ content or age-related risks. While ACT supports online protection for children, we want Congress to listen to the small business community and ensure that the burden is not shifted away from social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat and onto small businesses like ACT members.
We hope to see Congress pass privacy legislation that benefits children, parents, and innovators, such as the SECURE Data Act, which would create a national data privacy standard. Similarly, if Congress pursues kids’ safety legislation, it should consider constructs like the Parents Over Platforms Act (POPA), which would keep parents in control of their child’s online presence, while targeting age assurance obligations to apps that provide a different experience for minor users than for adults.
[1] Parents Talk Online Safety, More In Common (Oct. 30, 2025), Parents Talk Online Safety
[2] Making Sense of Age Assurance: Enabling Safer Online Experiences, Family Online Safety Institute (Nov. 2022), Making Sense of Age Assurance Full Report