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Governor Jeff Landry signed the App Store Accountability Act, requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before allowing minors under 18 to download apps or make in-app purchases. Louisiana Family Forum Director Gene Mills says when minors download apps, they enter into a contractual term of service.
“Literally, you have big tech titans making deals with kids who have no power or legal authority to provide informed consent to download that app.”
Mills says the law mandates that features like “Ask to Buy” be enabled by default for minors, and app stores must share users’ age categories with developers.
“They have the data to do that, and that’s the reason we chose the app store at the point of entry and the point of decision. There’s no breach of information. There’s no privacy concern. It’s simply a transactional decision.”
Mills says they know that the legislation does not violate the First Amendment, because a 2023 law passed in Louisiana requiring porn sites to verify the age of the user has been ruled constitutional.
“And it was tested in the U.S. Supreme Court last week in a Texas law that mimics our age verification for porn and it was upheld 6 to 3.”
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