H.R. 3149: App Store Accountability Act

If H.R. 3149 passes, the biggest app stores would become the checkpoint for whether your child can download an app or buy something inside it.

The bill covers app stores with more than 5,000,000 U.S. users. When someone creates an account, the store would have to ask their age and verify which age bucket they fall into: under 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, or adult.

If the user is under 18, the store would have to connect that account to a verified parent account before the minor could download apps, buy apps, or make in-app purchases. The store would also have to send developers the user’s age category and whether parental consent is on file, so the developer can rely on that instead of building its own age-check system.

The bill also reaches what happens after the first download. If an app makes a significant change — like collecting different data, sharing data in a new way, changing its age rating, or adding ads or in-app purchases — the app store would have to notify the user, notify the parent for minor accounts, and get fresh parental consent.

For app developers, the tradeoff is less guesswork about a user's age but more dependence on the app store's system. Developers generally could not sell to minors, enforce terms against minors, or keep using age-category data freely unless the app store has provided the right signal and consent status.

The bill includes privacy limits too. App stores could collect and keep age-verification data only as needed for verification, consent, or compliance records, and they would have to secure that information with reasonable safeguards, including encryption.

The big shift is who carries the burden: instead of every app deciding whether a user is a child, the app store becomes the internet's front desk for minors. The law would take effect 1 year after enactment.