As a college student, it wasn’t too long ago that I was a know-it-all teenager. As a collegiate scholar athlete, I am so thankful that my parents looked out for me when I clearly did not know it all! Despite the fact that kids are tech savvy, they do not have the emotional maturity or sophistication to oversee their app store downloads without the oversight of their parents.
I support the App Store Accountability Act, introduced as House Bill 226 and Senate Bill 167. Marietta’s State Rep. Kevin Ritter is a cosponsor of this bill, and I applaud him for his leadership on this issue. This important legislation would require app stores to obtain parental consent before allowing minors to download social media and other apps. Rather than forcing parents to navigate a maze of settings across multiple platforms, this bill offers a single, streamlined solution: a simple notification asking whether they approve the download.
What makes this proposal especially effective is its focus on protecting children’s privacy. Instead of requiring kids to submit personal information to various apps and websites for age verification, the process would be handled once at the app store level. This significantly reduces the amount of sensitive data being shared and stored, helping to safeguard families’ privacy.
Recent polls show that 80% of Ohio parents support this approach. We’re not asking for anything extreme — just practical tools that empower parents and truly work. The App Store Accountability Act delivers exactly that.
Morgan Parker, Marietta College junior
Marietta, Ohio
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