OPINION:
As a mother and a tech policy advocate, I think about my children’s online safety every day.
Like many other families, we have conversations about screen time, which apps, services or platforms are appropriate and how to navigate the internet responsibly.
Parenting in the digital age brings new challenges, but it also comes with aids that support healthy digital activity. Today, parents have many powerful tools to guide their children’s online experiences.
Despite this, lawmakers in states such as Texas, Utah, South Dakota and Michigan are pushing proposals claiming to protect children online. The proposed new laws would require app stores to verify the age of every user before they can download or access apps.
Supporters argue that these laws will give parents more control. In reality, they would do the opposite.
Many of these proposals would force millions of Americans, including adults, to hand over sensitive personal information simply to access an app store. In some cases, users could be required to upload government identification or provide other forms of verification before downloading even the most basic applications.
I do not want my children to be required to submit their IDs to download an app, and I imagine many other parents feel the same way. Where is this information going? How will it be stored and protected? Who is verifying my children’s identification?
Rather than promoting online safety, these mandates raise privacy concerns.
The proposals would require young users to link their accounts to a verified parent and obtain approval for every app download. At first glance, this might sound helpful, but in practice, requiring parents to approve every download across multiple devices could quickly become burdensome for families.
It also could create unnecessary barriers when a student needs to access something important, such as a school platform or a doctor’s app for a telehealth appointment.
These mandates also raise practical questions. What happens in households where parents are divorced or share custody? Would technology companies be expected to review court orders to determine which parent has authority to approve a child’s app download? What about children in foster care, where the legal guardian may be the state rather than a parent?
Requirements such as these would force companies to navigate complex family arrangements that have little to do with improving children’s online safety.
Courts have already recognized these problems. A federal judge recently blocked Texas’ app store law after finding it likely violated the First Amendment.
What makes this debate especially frustrating is that many of these proposals ignore a simple reality. As parents, we already have the ability to manage our children’s online activity. Today’s smartphones, tablets and computers include built-in parental controls that allow families to approve app downloads, limit screen time, filter content and restrict the people with whom children can communicate online.
We can also schedule device downtime for sleep or homework, and can see how much time our children spend on different apps.
Many home internet services and Wi-Fi routers offer similar options that can filter websites, manage device access and create safer browsing environments. Streaming services and apps often provide child profiles and age-based content settings that help families tailor what children can see.
These tools allow us, as parents, to make decisions that reflect our family values rather than relying on government mandates that collect personal information and enforce a one-size-fits-all rule.
Just as important, the tools we already have in place are simple to use. Some people assume that setting up protections will take hours or require technical expertise, but many parental controls can be activated in just a few minutes. Most devices and apps already include straightforward settings that allow parents to approve downloads, set screen time limits, filter content and manage communication.
Policymakers should mandate digital education so that both parents and young users better understand the online world. It would be preferable to imposing mandates that raise serious privacy and constitutional concerns.
Protecting children online is a goal everyone shares. The best way to achieve it is to empower families, not by forcing Americans to surrender more personal data or by imposing sweeping mandates that raise serious constitutional concerns.
• Megan Stokes is the state policy director at the Computer & Communications Industry Association.
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