Utah Passes First US App Store Age Verification Law (progresschamber.org) 44
Utah has become the first U.S. state to pass legislation requiring app store operators to verify users' ages and obtain parental consent for minors downloading apps.
The App Store Accountability Act adds to a wave of children's online safety bills advancing through state legislatures nationwide. Similar legislation has faced legal challenges, with many being blocked in courts. A comparable federal bill failed last year amid free expression concerns.
The approach shifts verification responsibility to mobile app stores rather than individual websites, a move supported by Meta, Snap, and X in a joint statement urging Congress to follow suit. "Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child's age and grant permission," they stated. Critics, including Chamber of Progress, warn the law threatens privacy and constitutional rights. A federal judge previously blocked a similar Utah law over First Amendment concerns.
The App Store Accountability Act adds to a wave of children's online safety bills advancing through state legislatures nationwide. Similar legislation has faced legal challenges, with many being blocked in courts. A comparable federal bill failed last year amid free expression concerns.
The approach shifts verification responsibility to mobile app stores rather than individual websites, a move supported by Meta, Snap, and X in a joint statement urging Congress to follow suit. "Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child's age and grant permission," they stated. Critics, including Chamber of Progress, warn the law threatens privacy and constitutional rights. A federal judge previously blocked a similar Utah law over First Amendment concerns.
Re: (Score:1)
More than 0.
Re: Sister Wives (Score:2, Interesting)
Not at all. They must obtain the permission of their husband, rather than their father. What is even more important is that it applies to all ages, rather than only underage wives.
I approve! (Score:4, Interesting)
If the age verification only applies to apps, it means web sites will stop creating stupid apps that are really just wrappers around web sites, and start making their product work in a normal web browser. Unintended consequences FTW!
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That would suggest the App store then has to verify age before allowing access to a "Web browser", since Web browser can be used to access age-restricted content
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Prosecute parents for password sharing. (Score:1)
Kids can only do it because the parents don't monitor what's going on. They won't go that route because it's bad for getting reelected.
Re: Nanny state (Score:2)
Sideloading? (Score:2)
Im sure (Score:2)
Re:Im sure (Score:4, Insightful)
Age verification is about plausible deniability. It's the modern equivalent of putting nudie rags in brown bags at the newsstand and requiring ID to buy one. It wasn't hard to get your "cool" buddy who's a senior in hs to buy one and share with the sophomores etc. Or to find Dad's stash of porn at home or whatever.
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Pretty sure nobody can sue unless it's shown that the app store doesn't require an age verification. Which is actually quite mild since older laws against prurience could lead to criminal action against the offending storefront.
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Or buy alcohol, see a restricted rated movie, cigarettes, cough medicine, etc. I bought Mucinex with dextromethorphan (cough suppressant) and got halted at the self checkout for ID verification. To my knowledge, theres no way to abuse guaifenesin or dextromethorphan to get high. So if they can age check these then I dont see much difference on digital content. They already have ESRB for video games. Technically if its M+ then the cashier is supposed to deny sales to a minor, I think. I was already way older
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DM is a common high, was all the rage from like the 90s and early 2000s. Gives hallucinations, supposedly much like Ketamine. The high lasts about 4 to 6 hours.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Dex is the ingredient for a "Robotrip"
It will F you up in high doses...
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There are privacy implications when verifying age online. In a store, the clerk can check your ID and nothing about you is stored. Online, we would have to trust that an age verifier isn't going to store (and sell) potentially very valuable information about its users.
They already have ESRB for video games.
Which is voluntary, just like movie ratings. It would be unconstitutional to enact in law.
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I dont know. If the courts fight back and cave to the free speech argument it could really have dire consequences. If some onlyfans skank claims its her free speech rights to show her pussy for $$ to a 16yr old; you could essentially throw every CSAM law out the window for the same free speech argument. Suddenly forcing 10yr olds to pose nude could be argued as speech like burning a flag. I dont know if the justices are willing to gamble thst hard. Not when a 18yo is not being denied, only inconvenienced.
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The right to privacy and anonymity do not imply the right to distribute child porn. These questions have already been adjudicated and have not led to the horrors you predict.
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Age verification is as hard to get around as a speed bump.
I don't know what roads are like where you live, but speed bumps aren't usually particularly easy to avoid. Unless you want to go off-roading, I guess (which would probably slow you down even more, and might scare the pedestrians).
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PII to the worst people (Score:3, Insightful)
Score for App Store providers (Score:2)
Utah proudly states (Score:3)
...it has ZERO FRICKEN CLUE about how technology works. But that's perfectly fine because feelings.
Next up, there'll be laws demanding back doors in everything. And a law demanding the Moon be rotated once a year.
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To me, it makes a lot of sense.
The phone maker (Apple, Samsung, Google, etc) have the information required to do age verification. It wouldn't be a heavy lift to incorporate an API call for age verification from the handset via AppStore or some other app.
The App Store could be the place for this functionality, or it could be extended from the device's wallet, which already is starting to have functionality for storing digital IDs. Even if you use a 3rd party App Store or side load, the apps would still be a
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Next up? The UK is already headed there, having demanded that Apple back door all their encryption for all users worldwide.
If you've read the act (Score:3)
Do Meta/Alphabet/X/ByteDance need parental approval to sell this data? Do they need to provide any encryption of, or insurance on, this data? Are there mandated time-limits and deletion procedures about storing this data? Then, there's a legal conflict: Utah is demanding corporations collect PII about children while the COPPA forbids that very behaviour.
Once again, we see the victim (the parent) doesn't have a duty of care to protect the child from making bad choices.
Do they know about web browsers? (Score:3)
Do law makers know that web browsers can do anything most mobile apps can? In fact most mobile apps are just web apps in wrappers?
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It doesn't matter how the thing is accessed. As long as it is accessed from the device, the browser (which is just another app) could use the age verification facility being mandated. I mean, why not? Your browser functionality could easily be extended and W3C standards created for facilitating age verification from any web site.
The discussion for whether or not age verification is a good idea is another issue entirely.
Age verfications (Score:1)
Already fixed on Debian (Score:2)
If you're a minor and you run a Debian-based OSs, just edit /etc/apt/sources.list and where it says "age=55" (or however many years after 1970 that it was, when you installed) change it to "age=17" in order to get the restrictions.
Agree in principal, but is it constitutional? (Score:3)
Must be 18 or over to own smartphone (Score:4, Interesting)