H.R. 3149: App Store Accountability Act

H.R. 3149, the App Store Accountability Act, applies to app stores with more than 5,000,000 U.S. users. In practice that means the largest mobile marketplaces, not small software sites.

When you open an account, the store would ask your age and verify it with a commercially available method. It would then sort you into one of four brackets: under 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, or 18 and over.

If you're under 18, your account has to be linked to a verified parent account, and a parent has to approve each app download, app purchase, and in-app purchase before it goes through. Before approving, the parent sees what data the app collects, what it shares, how it protects that data, and its age rating.

Approval isn't one-and-done. If an app later changes what data it collects or shares, changes its age rating, adds ads or in-app purchases, or otherwise changes in a way a reasonable person would call material, the store has to notify the parent and get consent again. Parents can revoke consent, and the store must tell the developer when they do.

Developers would stop guessing at ages. They'd receive an age bracket and consent status from the store, could check it in real time, and couldn't share that age data with outside companies. A developer that relies in good faith on the store's age signal and follows the bill's rules would be shielded from liability under this law.

The FTC would enforce the law, write compliance guidance within a year, and offer app stores a 30-day review that ends in a public certificate of compliance, good for one year. State attorneys general could also sue on behalf of residents.

The bill would also block states from enforcing their own laws related to these provisions, making this one federal standard in place of a patchwork. It takes effect one year after enactment.