Politicians regularly find themselves looking, and "solving," backwards. Think Rep. John James, and his newly introduced App Store Accountability Act. As opposed to a solution in search of a problem, James’s Act is a solution in search of problems long ago anticipated, and subsequently fixed by top technology companies.
The Act would, among other things, mandate age verification and parental approval for minors under the age of 18 when it comes to the downloading or purchase of apps utilized by smartphone or computer users. Implied in the Act is that lawmakers want to aid parents in the protection of young people from potentially harmful online content.
Except that if we ignore the potential unintended consequences of James’s bill which will soon be discussed, James is late. Remarkably late. There’s nothing of note in his Act that parents can’t already do much more effectively on their own. Considering Google alone, it already offers a “Family Link” app that empowers parents to control what their children see and do across the full suite of Google products.
Parents worry about too much screentime, and Family Link equips parents to limit daily usage, to track what their children are seeing while their eyes are on the screen, not to mention that it sets them up to block usage during times most associated with homework. Parents can also engineer blocks on device usage at bedtime so that they can rest easy when their kids are perhaps restless.
Regarding the purchase of apps, or accession of social media, Family Link provides parents with total oversight over both. Of greatest importance here, since parents likely aren’t as up-to-date about what is popular with kids, Family Link is set up to notify parents when their children are downloading or purchasing a specific app ahead of time so that they can vet it before any usage.
What about school? It’s a challenging question mainly because some parents want their children to have smartphone and computer access while at school, but don’t want the distractions that various internet-enabled devices can bring. Yet again parents have the capacity through Family Link to “pause” access to apps and websites that aren’t school appropriate, all the while allowing access to what is appropriate. Notable about the Family Link features so-far mentioned, they’re but a fraction of the myriad parental controls provided.
Which brings us to the potential unintended consequences of an App Store Accountability Act that is plainly late to the protect-the-children party. It’s about the dangerous creation of a false sense of security among parents.
While it’s a safe bet that most parents don’t need a law as is to track how often their kids are online, when, and seeing what, stop and consider the parents who might be a little less vigilant about screen-time and some of its attendant threats. It’s worth it to think about them with a national law meant to protect children top of mind. It could easily have the opposite effect to the extent that the Act’s passage gives parents assurance that politicians are doing for them such that parents don’t have to. As has long been said, the road to unfortunate outcomes is frequently paved with good intentions.
The above truth is something Rep. James’s colleagues in the House and Senate will ideally recognize while contemplating the App Store Accountability Act. Though the latter most certainly doesn’t hold a candle to parental empowerment that already exists thanks to Google, Apple and others, it’s possible that what’s well-intentioned will result in worse outcomes for those lulled into light vigilance by mere words that falsely imply good parental outcomes can be legislated.
