• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, March 12, 2025

Google has asked Utah Governor Spencer Cox to vetoa first-of-its-kind bill that would require the company and other app distributors to verify users' ages and then block minors under 18 from downloading apps without parental permission, according to a company spokesperson.

The Utah App Store Accountability Act (SB 142), which passed last week, is supported by Meta Platforms. That company proposed last year that app stores should be required to obtain parental permission before allowing minors to obtain apps.

On Wednesday, Google's public policy director, Kareem Ghanem, described the bill as "concerning," adding that it “raises real privacy and safety risks.”

Ghanem pointed to a provision in the measure that would require app stores to share whether a user is underage with all app developers.

“This level of data sharing isn’t necessary -- a weather app doesn’t need to know if a user is a kid,” Ghanem wrote in a post on Google's blog. “By contrast, a social media app does need to make significant decisions about age-appropriate content and features.”

He added that Google is proposing a legislative blueprint that involves sharing “age signals” with developers -- but only if they need the information “to deliver age-appropriate experiences,” and only with parental consent.

Others have argued that requiring age verification and parental consent to access apps would violate the First Amendment.

Kerry Maeve Sheehan, legal advocacy counsel at the tech-funded policy group Chamber of Progress, argued last week that Utah's bill would unconstitutionally force minors and adults “to choose between sacrificing their privacy by disclosing sensitive personal information (their own or, in the case of a minor user’s parents, their children’s) and accessing legally protected online speech.”

She added that courts throughout the country have held that minors generally have a First Amendment right to access speech.