We urgently need federal legislation that protects kids online — without burdening providers of kid-friendly material with complex, costly new compliance requirements.
The Parents Over Platforms Act (POPA) offers a smart, strategic approach to kids’ online safety that does exactly that. To protect kids, it demands responsibility and accountability from key players in the digital ecosystem — both app developers and app stores. At the same time, it avoids saddling providers of harmless material with needless regulations that would drive up costs, stifle innovation, and jeopardize privacy.
POPA requires app developers to tell app stores (e.g., the Apple App Store or Sony PlayStation Store) if their product is intended for adults only or offers different experiences based on users’ ages. The distributor is then responsible for determining a user’s age and transmitting an age signal back to the app developer. The developer, in turn, is responsible for ensuring it provides the experience that aligns with the age signal it’s received. In short, POPA requires distributors to check users’ age, and holds developers responsible for providing age-appropriate experiences — creating a robust system for keeping kids safe from inappropriate material.
Some critics have suggested that POPA may discourage developers from offering differentiated experiences for minors in order to avoid compliance obligations. But that criticism doesn’t hold water. POPA requires app developers to block minors from accessing inappropriate experiences — regardless of whether those experiences are the only ones the developer offers. In fact, POPA is far more likely to encourage developers to create experiences that are appropriate for all audiences, because doing so is the only way to gain exemption from the bill’s regulatory obligations and take advantage of the age signal.
Moreover, POPA offers a clear, comprehensive list of who must comply: apps that either 1) offer a differentiated experience for adults versus minors, or 2) are intended only for adults. That clarity gives app developers only three options — none of which allow kids to access inappropriate experiences:
-Offer general audience experiences that are appropriate for all ages, as 65% of apps already do
-Offer different experiences for adults and minors
-Offer adult-only experiences and block minors entirely
In contrast, a competing proposal, the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA), would do little to protect kids online because it contains major gaps in both the services it covers and the accountability it requires. Unlike POPA, which includes gaming consoles and VR platforms, ASAA applies only to mobile apps. That’s a major loophole that would simply push kids to access inappropriate material through websites and other devices. The bill would also exempt many pre-installed apps, meaning deep-pocketed app companies could simply pay to have their apps pre-installed on mobile devices, and thus avoid compliance. Worse, ASAA doesn’t even ask app developers to do anything more than request an age signal when a user downloads an app — there’s no requirement that the developer must then align the provided experience with the received age signal. ASAA establishes no meaningful safeguards, providing no pathway to sanction developers who expose kids to inappropriate material.
POPA provides a smart, workable framework that holds developers accountable for the experiences they provide, and protects kids online — without burdening the majority of apps that provide appropriate experiences for users of all ages. By contrast, ASAA is riddled with loopholes, offers no system for ensuring kids can’t access inappropriate materials, and demands zero accountability from the most concerning apps — all while burdening developers of safe apps with thousands of dollars in annual compliance costs.
The choice is clear. If lawmakers want to keep kids safe without overburdening makers of kid-friendly online materials, they should pass POPA.
