HB6333, titled the Parents Over Platforms Act, would establish federal requirements for age assurance in the mobile app ecosystem, with a focus on protecting minors. It applies to application distribution providers, developers of covered applications, and certain covered websites, and it defines key terms such as minor, adult, age signal, covered application, and personalized advertising. The bill requires app distributors to ask users to declare their age when creating an account, allows them to use commercially reasonable methods to estimate age, and requires them to make age-category information available to developers when the user or parent agrees to share it.
The bill also requires app distributors and developers to build parental-control and age-gating tools into app distribution and app functionality. Developers of covered applications must report whether their apps offer different experiences for adults and minors, provide privacy and safety information for parents, use commercially reasonable efforts to determine whether a user is a minor or adult, and prevent minors from accessing adult-only features or content. The bill prohibits personalized advertising to minors and restricts how age information may be shared or reused, including prohibiting efforts to infer a user’s date of birth from an age signal.
Impact
If enacted, the bill would create new federal duties for app stores, app developers, and certain web versions of apps, while excluding internet browsers and online search engines from the core definitions. It would also make violations enforceable as unfair or deceptive acts or practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act, giving the FTC primary enforcement authority. The bill includes liability protections for distributors and operating system providers acting in good faith, and it expressly preempts state and local laws related to the same subject matter, which would likely displace existing or future state age-verification or app-safety requirements covered by the act.
Sentiment
The available legislative history suggests generally favorable early treatment, as the bill was forwarded by subcommittee to the full committee by voice vote. No recorded votes or committee transcript excerpts were provided, so there is no detailed public record here of floor debate or formal opposition. The bill’s title and structure indicate a child-safety and parental-control framing that is likely intended to appeal to members concerned about minors’ online exposure and platform accountability.
Contention
The main points of potential contention are likely to center on privacy, implementation burden, and federal preemption. App distributors and developers may object to the costs and technical complexity of age assurance, the need to share age signals, and the restrictions on how age data can be used. Privacy advocates may be concerned that age estimation and age-sharing systems could collect sensitive information or create new risks of misuse, even with limits on sharing and date-of-birth inference. States or localities that have adopted or may adopt their own online safety or age-verification rules could also object to the bill’s broad preemption clause, while industry stakeholders may debate whether the bill’s liability protections are sufficient or too narrow.
An act to add Chapter 22.9 (commencing with Section 22682) to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, and to add Chapter 5.4 (commencing with Section 11530) to Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to business.
Establishes the "stop online predators act"; requires operators of covered platforms to conduct age verification to determine whether a user is a covered minor; requires operators of covered platforms to utilize certain default privacy settings for covered minors; requires operators of covered platforms to require parental approval of certain activity related to a covered minor's covered platform account.
Establishes the "stop online predators act"; requires operators of covered platforms to conduct age verification to determine whether a user is a covered minor; requires operators of covered platforms to utilize certain default privacy settings for covered minors; requires operators of covered platforms to require parental approval of certain activity related to a covered minor's covered platform account.
Prohibiting social medial platforms from allowing children under 16 years of age to create, maintain or access an account unless the platform has obtained verified parental consent.
A bill for an act relating to parental authorization for minors to create accounts on social media platforms, providing civil penalties, and including applicability provisions.(See HF 798.)