The App Store Accountability Act, a bicameral bill introduced last week, would require app store operators to verify users’ ages and require parents to consent for minors to use the store, download apps, or make purchases. In a new insight, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling discusses the bill’s privacy and constitutional concerns, primarily stemming from the burden it would impose on anonymous speech and the additional information users would be required to provide to access any application.

He concludes:

After a long push for state-level age verification requirements for app stores, Congress may soon act to impose a nationwide standard. The bill’s placement of the burden of verifying age on app stores rather than individual applications – along with advancements in age-assurance technologies that require less information from users – could alleviate some privacy and constitutional concerns but would not resolve them entirely. Congress should carefully consider how the bill would impact privacy and anonymous speech online, as well as whether existing tools with less intrusive means can adequately protect minors from harmful applications.

Read the analysis.