MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The House Committee on State Government has approved HB161, which requires app stores to verify a user’s age and link parent accounts for minors.
Sponsor Rep. Chris Sells, R-Greenville, said this bill puts the control back in parents’ hands by stopping children from downloading apps without adults’ permission.
“As we’re here, we talk about budgets, we talk about a lot of things, but really, what’s the most important thing in our lives? That’s our children, you know? What this does is just trying to help protect our children,” Sells said.
A similar bill passed in the House last session, but the Senate never voted on it. Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, has said he will push an age verification bill in that chamber this year.
Opponents say if passed, the legislation will face legal challenges as it has in other states.
The bill would sort children into age categories when they make an account on app stores. If users are under age, guardians would have to set up a linked account to approve the minor to download apps and make in-app purchases. If developers make major changes to apps, parents would also have to reauthorize their children’s usage of them.
The bill also stops app stores from being able to enforce contracts or terms of service agreements against minors without their parents’ permission.
The committee held a public hearing on the bill last week.
Several parents spoke in favor of it, saying it would make it easier to monitor their children’s digital activity and make sure they are having an age-appropriate experience.
“It restores parental oversight by restricting app stores from allowing underage children to sign contracts,” said Stephanie Smith, president and CEO of the Alabama Policy Institute. “Nowhere in the brick and mortar or real world do children sign contracts, nor should they. They can’t even sign their own field trip form.”
A representative from Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads – said the bill would allow the company to more easily place minors into the age-appropriate versions of their apps like Instagram teen accounts and Messenger Kids.
“Really it’s critical to remember that in order to put teens into things like teen accounts, into age appropriate experiences, apps need to know who is and who is not a teen period,” said Jennifer Hanley, Meta’s head of North American youth safety. “As you’re aware, understanding age is really a complex industry-wide challenge because many people, including young people, misrepresent how old they are online. (This bill) we think is the best way to do this.”
Others spoke against the bill because of its financial and legal implications.
Ninia Linero, a representative from ACT – The App Association, and Charisse Stokes, president of a technology consulting company, oppose the bill because of its consequences on small businesses.
“For small developers building these kinds of systems are very costly and complex, and they often do not have the compliance and legal teams to support these types of mandates,” Linero said.
Justin Hill, a representative from the tech trade association NetChoice, said that similar bills have been ruled unconstitutional or held up via injunctions in other states, including Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. A federal judge in Texas last month stopped that state’s law from going into effect after lawsuits alleged First Amendment and free speech violations.
“Unfortunately, if this bill passes, it will be enjoined,” Hill said. “It will likely be held up in court until Texas funds this to the Supreme Court. If this passes, you’re asking the taxpayers of Alabama to fund a lawsuit. So in Missouri, whenever this occurred, we actually put a fiscal note on it or sent it to the budget committee because we were expecting litigation.”
Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said he expects to see the bill on the House floor soon.
Updated 2:25 p.m. to correct the states where legislation has been held up via injunctions.