WASHINGTON –Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the App Store Accountability Act, a bill designed to give parents the tools and legal recourse they need to protect their children from harmful content on mobile apps. The legislation addresses the alarming prevalence of harmful material—including sexually explicit content and social apps that expose minors to predatory behavior—enabled by app stores’ inadequate safety measures and perverse incentives to keep children engaged.

“For too long, app stores and developers have prioritized profits over the safety of our children,”said Senator Lee. “Parents are doing their best to shield their kids from harmful content, but the tools available are often ineffective, inaccessible, and easy to bypass. This legislation puts parents back in control by holding app stores accountable and ensuring they offer robust protections for kids.”

According to a Family Online Safety Institute study, 79% of parents have used parental controls at some point, yet exposure to harmful material remains widespread. Two-thirds of parents report dissatisfaction with the tools currently available.

The App Store Accountability Act ensures that parents are empowered to protect their children by:

• Establishing a private right of action: Parents may seek relief, including actual and punitive damages, for harm caused by exposure to dangerous content.
• Providing a safe harbor for compliant app stores: Platforms can meet minimum standards by offering tools like secure age verification, parental oversight, and accurate app age ratings.
• Requiring transparency and oversight: Annual certifications and a complaint mechanism will ensure tools are effective and loopholes are closed.
• Prohibiting data exploitation: The sale of age-related data collected for verification will be strictly prohibited.

The App Store Accountability Act also expresses that it is the sense of Congress that parents should have the right to seek remedies when harmful content injures their children and that app stores must provide effective tools to mitigate risks.

One-pager | Bill text

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