This comes a week after Utah became the first state in the US to require app stores to verify users’ ages.
Google has accused Meta and other social media companies of pushing legislative proposals that offload their responsibilities to keep kids safe from app stores.
“These proposals introduce new risks to the privacy of minors, without actually addressing the harms that are inspiring lawmakers to act,” the tech giant claimed in a blog post published on Wednesday, March 12.
Google’s charges against Meta come a week after Utah became the first state in the US to pass legislation requiring app stores (such as Google Play Store and Apple App Store) to verify users’ ages and get parental consent for minors for downloading apps on their devices.
While Meta, Snap, and X issued a joint statement praising the passage of the Utah bill, Google labelled the age-assurance legislation as ‘concerning’.
More than a dozen other states in the US are reportedly contemplating similar legislation in an effort to ensure the online safety of kids and teen users. In the past, both Meta and Google have come under fire for allegedly not doing enough to ensure the safety of minors using their platforms.
Although both tech companies assert they have strong policies in place, Google has pushed back against legislation such as Utah’s App Store Accountability Act because it puts the onus on app store owners to verify ages. “…the bill helps social media companies avoid that responsibility despite the fact that apps are just one of many ways that kids can access these platforms,” Kareem Ghanem, public policy director at Google, said.
“Everyone wants to protect kids and teens online, and make sure they engage with age-appropriate content, but how it’s done matters,” Ghanem said.
What else did Google say?
In response to Utah’s new age-assurance law, Google proposed its own legislative framework that lets app stores “securely provide industry standard age assurances only to developers who actually need them.”
This means that age-assurance would be carried out only for apps that could contain risky content, as opposed to mundane apps like weather apps. The Alphabet-owned company also proposed to let app developers decide the appropriate protections to put in place for a given age group.
“Because developers know their apps best, they are best positioned to determine when and where an age-gate might be beneficial to their users, and that may evolve over time, which is another reason why a one-size-fits-all approach won’t adequately protect kids,” Ghanem wrote.
In its most recent online safety report, Apple also raised concerns of excessive data collection by app developers. “Because many kids in the US don’t have government-issued IDs, parents in the US will have to provide even more sensitive documentation just to allow their child to access apps meant for children. That’s not in the interest of user safety or privacy,” the company said.
How has Meta responded?
“We welcome Google’s concession that they can share age information with app developers, and we agree this should be done in a privacy-preserving manner,” Meta spokesperson Jamie Radice was quoted as saying by The Verge.
“But with millions of apps on Google’s app store, and more added every day, it’s unclear how they’ll determine which apps are eligible to receive this data. The simplest way to protect teens online is to put parents in charge. That’s why legislation should require app stores to obtain parental consent before allowing children to download apps,” she added.
How to verify users’ age has been a major concern and challenge for stakeholders to figure out. Utah’s law doesn’t specify any age-assurance processes either, simply stating that app store operators can use any “commercially available methods that are reasonably designed to ensure accuracy.”