The App Store Accountability Act (ASAA) is a proposed law in the US that would put the onus of age verification on app store developers. It looks to shift the responsibility of age verification from the individual app and website level to the distributors, with Apple and Google being first in the line of fire.
Of course, the intent of this law is justified, but it has raised a lot of privacy concerns. This is because users have to hand over sensitive data to platforms like Apple and Google, which could be catastrophic if these companies were to suffer a data breach.
What is the App Store Accountability Act?
The ASAA would make app stores in the US responsible for employing age verification. App stores must verify the age of a user before they can download or use apps from the store.
Moreover, the ASAA requires parental consent if a minor attempts to access apps which aren’t suitable for their age group. Also, it effectively prohibits app stores from relying on third-party companies for age verification. They can, but they’ll still remain fully liable.
Utah became the first US state to pass an app-level verification law in 2025. Texas has also passed a similar law, set to take effect from January 1, 2026. Similarly, Louisiana and California have their own versions of the ASAA, set to take effect in late 2026 and 2027. At the federal level, a formal proposal for the ASAA was introduced in 2025, but it has not been passed by either House yet.
What will this mean for age verification in the US?
There are currently 25 US states that employ some form of online age-verification laws. If the ASAA becomes a nationwide law, it will mean that:
- App stores will have to verify the age of all users, which includes collecting personal data and documents like identity proofs, credit card info, and biometrics.
- If the user is under 18, verifiable parental consent will be required for using app stores, downloading apps, and making in-app purchases.
- The devices of minors must be linked on app stores to parents/guardians.
- App developers must assign appropriate age ratings for their apps, which must be updated if there are major changes to app features.
While there has been pushback from Apple against the Act citing compliance and infrastructure burdens, others have argued it is comparable to shops requiring ID to purchase alcohol.
These proposals introduce new risks to the privacy of minors, without actually addressing the harms that are inspiring lawmakers to act
While the intent behind age verification is indeed genuine, as it aims to restrict access of adult and explicit content for minors, the route taken by lawmakers to implement it is a major privacy trade-off.
Earlier, only adult websites were subject to age verification, but now, gatekeeper-level verification means that even if you want to use an app that’s not “adult,” you’ll have to complete mandatory age verification.
It has been argued that this puts your private data in the hands of platforms that cannot realistically guarantee its safe storage, increasing the risk of identity theft, scams, phishing, and more.
This is why more and more users are turning to VPNs in an effort to circumvent these rather draconian laws. However, there’s an important caveat: if Apple or Google shifts age verification to the account level, even a VPN won’t be enough to bypass those checks.
