Apple unwilling to enforce age verification for social media usage
Apple is facing a growing battle over child safety, as lawmakers and app creators seek to regulate teenage smartphone use. The debate centers on whether responsibility for regulating teen social media use, should lie solely with apps or also involve smartphone manufacturers and app stores. Apple on its end, is pushing back on efforts for it to enforce age verification. This comes amid concerns about potential risks of social media on teen mental health, and its misuse for illegal activities.
Proposed legislation targets data collection on minors
Several US states have proposed or enacted laws to regulate platforms, following concerns about social media's impact on teen mental health and its exploitation for illicit activities. These laws aim to limit platforms' ability to gather data on minors, offer them algorithmically targeted content, or permit them to create accounts without parental consent. Until now, Apple had largely remained uninvolved in this issue.
Advocates argue for age verification by Apple, Google
Social media platforms and many child safety advocates claim that effective content restrictions will necessitate certain form of age verification from Apple and Google. Chris McKenna, founder of advocacy group Protect Young Eyes, stated that "age verifying app by app is a case of whack-a-mole." He further added, "Every device knows the age of its user. We give our devices an enormous amount of our identity."
Apple believes social media firms should verify user ages
An Apple spokesperson stated that websites and social media firms are best positioned to verify a user's age. The spokesperson also suggested that user privacy expectations would be violated if Apple was forced to share the age of its users with third-party apps. The firm provides tools that allow parents to control their children's devices, according to the spokesperson.
Meta, Match Group support age verification by app stores
Meta and Match Group have expressed support for the idea that app stores should verify user ages. A Meta spokesperson argued against the impracticality of verifying a child's age on an app-by-app basis. "Rather than putting the onus on parents to upload sensitive information or provide proof of identity for their teen's age for every single app their children use, app stores can provide a central place for families to do this," they said.
