Amid ongoing debates about regulating teen smartphone use, Apple Inc. AAPL is reportedly opposing legislative efforts requiring it to enforce age restrictions on apps.
What Happened: Apple is pushing back against legislative efforts to make the company enforce age restrictions on apps, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
State legislators across the U.S. are attempting to regulate teen smartphone use, driven by concerns over teen mental health and the misuse of social-media platforms. This has lead to a confrontation with tech giants like Apple. The core issue is whether age verification should be managed within apps or by smartphone makers and app stores.
Earlier this year, Louisiana legislator Kim Carver added a provision to a social-media bill requiring tech companies to help enforce age restrictions. The provision, inspired by a proposal from Meta, would have required app stores to enforce age restrictions.
While Carver’s bill faced little opposition in Louisiana’s Senate, it required approval from a key committee. In May, the bill finally passed after Sen. Beth Mizell removed the app store provision.
Apple has managed to stay out of the fray until now but is expected to face more challenges as lawmakers push forward.
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The Tim Cook-led company argues that websites and social-media companies are better positioned to verify user ages, citing privacy concerns if required to share user data with third-party apps.
However, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta and other app developers argue that app stores should handle age verification centrally, a stance supported by Tinder‘s parent company Match Group.
Apple has yet to respond to Benzinga’s queries.
Why It Matters: The push for regulating teen smartphone use is intensifying. In Florida, a new law bans social media for kids under 14 and mandates ID checks for all ages. This reflects a broader trend of states taking action to protect minors online.
The need for age restrictions come at a time when social media platforms are experiencing surge in sexually explicit content and cases of child sexual exploitations. Some platforms like Twitch have revised their sexual content policies amid criticism, allowing certain previously banned material with warning labels.
Notably, Apple retracted its years-long resistance a few days ago to the “Right To Repair Bill” that grants consumers access to repair their electronic devices, after facing intense criticism.
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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari
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