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US Congress to consider App Store age verification measures

Date:
Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:10:42 +0000

Description:
While the Congress is set to discuss 19 bills focused on child safety online,
the App Store Accountability Act is the one that worries Apple and Google the
most. Here's what's at stake.

FULL STORY

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. 

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. 
For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms
and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and
strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone
using a VPN service to break the law or conduct illegal activities. Consuming
pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future
Publishing. 

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/us-congress-to-consider-app
-store-age-verification-measures

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