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[Op-Ed submitted by Joy Gjersvold, Program Director at Conservative Ladies of America]
The App Store Accountability Act Undermines Parental Rights and Digital Privacy
David Hall’s op-ed in The Highline Journal offers a heartfelt defense of the App Store Accountability Act, rooted in his personal experience and his work with transplant recipients. His commitment to expanding access to life-saving information is admirable. However, the legislation he supports in his op-ed doesn’t simply notify parents about app downloads, it mandates a sweeping digital infrastructure that compromises privacy, expands government oversight, and fails to protect children where it matters most: inside the apps themselves.
Let’s start with the core claim. Hall writes that the bill “focuses on something much simpler, making sure parents know which apps their teenagers are downloading.” That’s not accurate. The bill requires app stores to verify the age category of every user using “secure” methods, potentially including government ID uploads, biometric scans, or third-party data brokers. The bill also mandates that every minor’s account be linked to a verified parent account. This isn’t simply a notification to parents, it’s a government- defined digital family registry.
One thing we know for sure with laws like this, once built, this infrastructure will only expand. It creates a pipeline for persistent tracking of age and consent status and opens the door to broader digital ID systems. While the bill prohibits selling age category data, it does not ban its storage, sharing, or profiling. Developers can request this data from app stores, and there are no clear limits on retention or use.
Hall also claims the bill protects access to online communities for teens with chronic illnesses. The legislation does nothing to regulate what happens inside an app once it’s downloaded. It doesn’t address chat features, algorithmic exposure, or interactions with strangers. It locks the front door but leaves the windows wide open. Parents are given a false sense of security while the real risks remain untouched.
The bill’s legal framework is equally troubling. It allows parents to sue developers and platforms for failing to implement “effective” tools, without defining what “effective” means. This invites litigation and compels developers to assign age ratings and disclose content in ways that may violate First Amendment protections.
Hall is right to warn against policies that restrict lawful content or block educational outreach. But the App Store Accountability Act doesn’t solve that problem, it creates new ones. It replaces parental discretion with state-mandated oversight, and it builds a compliance regime that could easily be expanded into broader surveillance or credentialing systems.
True parental rights mean voluntary tools, not government-defined gatekeeping. They mean trusting families, not deputizing them. And they mean protecting children without sacrificing privacy, autonomy, or constitutional liberty.
Washington’s delegation should reject this bill, not because we oppose safety, but
because we demand real solutions that empower families without compromising their freedom.
-Thank you
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