Op-Ed: Protecting kids online is easier than it seems
By Lee Currie
In all my years involved in politics, I have seen only a handful of proposals that receive real overwhelming support among the public. The federal App Store Accountability Act is one of them.
Last year, a 14-year-old boy committed suicide after developing a relationship with an artificial intelligence chatbot on an app. The boy’s mother had no idea what her son was doing on his device. She even thought the chatbot was something like a video game.
My heart aches for this mother.
This story illustrates an important principle: when parents are left in the dark about their kids’ online habits, children lose their best protectors and strongest advocates. There are over 4 million apps available for download and daily screentime is skyrocketing among children and teens. Unless our representatives act, children will continue to access dangerous content on their devices, while their parents are none the wiser.
The App Store Accountability Act—sponsored by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Representatives John James (R-Mich.) and Gus Bilirakis (R-Flor.)—is the only children’s online safety proposal that preserves parental rights, privacy, and free speech.
The bill is simple and practical. It requires app stores to obtain verifiable parental consent when a minor wishes to download any app from the app store. This empowers parents to approve or deny apps based on whether the content is appropriate for their child. App stores already have the tools to implement these changes, and they are more secure than third-party developers. Why would anyone want to require parents to provide personal information to every platform or app their child wants to download when the app stores can merely send a signal to each app whether the parent approves and whether the user is a minor? This step alone will save so many kids.
Recently, there have been a string of lawsuits against Roblox, a popular online gaming platform among kids, alleging that predators communicated with victims on the platform—some as young as 10 years old. Imagine if we empowered parents to truly understand and vet what is on their children’s devices.
The bill goes further to ensure app age ratings reflect actual content and in-app experiences. It verifies and standardizes age categories between app stores and developers. Age ratings can be flawed and subjective, so improving standardization makes these decisions easier for parents.
Some of our state legislators are trying to act to protect kids online, as evidenced by the proposed House Bill 301, which would ban children under 14 from social media. While well-intentioned, this approach fails to empower parents and put them in the driver’s seat to monitor what their children do online. This bill does not expand the role of parents; it expands the role of government. A judge ruled that a similar ban in Florida would be “likely unconstitutional” due to free speech concerns.
The North Carolina Legislature should alternatively consider the App Store Accountability Act, which avoids these constitutional issues because instead of limiting speech, it expands parental rights. Parents overwhelmingly agree that a larger parental presence, not government presence, is the key to protecting kids. Most importantly, 88% of parents support the key provisions of the App Store Accountability Act.
North Carolina can join Texas, Utah, and Louisiana in passing the App Store Accountability Act now and become a national leader in the fight to stand up to Big Tech and protect children online.
The facts are clear: we have a proposal that empowers parents, protects privacy and free speech, and has overwhelming support. In politics, it is not often that a proposal receives unified, bipartisan support. North Carolina’s congressional delegation would be wise to heed parents’ wishes and call for a hearing on the App Store Accountability Act—Tar Heel kids and families are counting on it.
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