- US Congress to discuss the App Store Accountability Act on December 2
- Pinterest, Meta and X support the bill, but Apple and Google have concerns
- Congress is discussing a total of 19 bills focused on child safety online
Lawmakers around the world have been busy strengthening children’s online safety in 2025, and the US is no different.
So far US States have taken the matter into their hands – Missouri being the latest to enforce its age verification law – with Congress lagging behind. Yet, lawmakers are keen to catch up on a federal level and are set to discuss a large set of proposals focused on child safety today.
Among these, the App Store Accountability Act (ASA) is worrying Apple and Google, despite having granted support from the likes of Meta, X, and now Pinterest.
Following the path of Utah, Texas, and California, the bill was introduced in May by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. John James (R-MI), and seeks to shift the responsibility on to the App Store’s providers. Under the legislation, Google and Apple will be in charge of providing safeguards for minors, including verifying their age in a privacy-preserving way and limiting access to apps if deemed too young.
Apple and Google, however, have expressed concerns about the level of data sharing that ASA and similar laws require. “These proposals introduce new risks to the privacy of minors, without actually addressing the harms that are inspiring lawmakers to act,” wrote Google.
It’s also unclear how these requirements will be upheld in Court, as Texas’s app store age verification law (which is expected in January 2026) is being challenged with two lawsuits.
What’s certain is that if ASA passes, it will become significantly harder for people to use a virtual private network (VPN) or similar tools to protect their data and bypass the rules.
19 children safety’s bills to be discussed
ASA is far from the only bill currently under consideration. The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is hearing a total of 19 proposals on this topic today. These include another controversial bill, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), after it made a comeback in Congress in May.
Experts at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have warned that this proposal – which would require online service providers to shield minors from a huge array of harms online – could end up making the internet worse for everyone.
“Lawmakers who support KOSA today are choosing to trust the current administration, and future administrations, to define what youth – and to some degree, all of us – should be allowed to read online,” they wrote.
Another bill scheduled to be discussed is the SCREEN Act, or Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net. This follows similar rules implemented in some States and targets the introduction of age verification measures for adult-only websites and apps.
While federal guidelines could fix what experts have called a “state-by-state legal mess,” familiar issues around people’s privacy, data security, and right to free speech will remain. We’ll wait and see if lawmakers manage to strike the right balance, this time.
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