Key Takeaways
- The Texas App Store Accountability Act may be temporary, but it underscores a growing consensus that child safety on dating apps outweighs concerns about friction.
- Despite ongoing legal challenges, the ASAA reflects a growing push to give parents a larger role in protecting children from online harm.
- The legal battle over the ASAA highlights the ongoing tension between protecting children online and preserving privacy and constitutional rights.
- If app-store-level age verification becomes the norm, dating platforms will need to adapt to a user journey they no longer fully control.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing Texas to implement its App Store Accountability Act, which, in addition to strengthening age verification laws for all users, aims to protect children online by enforcing stronger parental consent requirements.
But the court emphasized two vital words in its ruling: “For now.” The court still has the power to reverse the decision in the near future.
Let’s be real: Teenagers laugh in the face of age restrictions on most apps. This is especially true for dating apps, which are often seen as an alluring, off-limits symbol of adulthood for young, starry-eyed singles.
There always seems to be a loophole or work-around into these apps for tech-savvy and resourceful daters who want to start swiping.
And although age verification processes have become even tighter in recent years, minors still find ways to interact with adults on dating apps — and vice versa.
The real fear isn’t just that kids will see or hear adult content, but that they’ll be taken advantage of by adults on dating apps. After all, we know by now that bad actors are often able to circumnavigate being blocked or banned from a dating app. Who’s to say that teenagers can’t circumnavigate age restrictions?
Although age verification processes have become even tighter in recent years, minors still find ways to interact with adults on dating apps — and vice versa.
The ASAA may be a temporary decision, but it is still a major signal of what’s to come in the dating industry, especially as it pertains to child safety laws. It’s clear that age verification for people of all ages is non-negotiable, even if it adds friction to the onboarding process.
What Does The Law Say About Age Verification?
Under the ASAA, Texas-based minors would have to connect their Apple and Google accounts to their parents’, so that their parents know which apps they’re downloading and which in-app purchases they’re making.
Developers would also have to clearly indicate which age group the app targets: Children under 13, teens aged 13-15, older teens aged 16-17, or adults over 18.
Could some parents use this as an excuse to invade their children’s privacy? Of course. It’s also important to consider how the ASAA would affect all apps, not just those in adult-oriented spaces, potentially blocking kids’ access to educational or cultural resources. To some, this is a direct violation of their First Amendment rights.
The ASAA has had a rocky life so far, and its path to permanent implementation is far from guaranteed.
Others argue that the legislation isn’t about parents spying on their kids so much as parents being another line of defense between their kids and online predators.
As for right now, the law does not directly apply outside Texas, although companies such as Apple and Google could decide to extend compliance measures more broadly. It all depends on whether the ASAA becomes a permanent law, and whether people respond positively to it.
The ASAA has had a rocky life so far, and its path to permanent implementation is far from guaranteed. It’s hard to believe that legislation focused on keeping children safe could be controversial, but that’s exactly where the ASAA finds itself.
The ASAA has been in legislative limbo for months, with some detractors claiming that the ASAA would compromise people’s privacy and First Amendment rights.
Why A Federal Judge Blocked the Law
A federal judge even blocked the ASAA out of concern for people’s First Amendment rights.
Back in December, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said, “The Act is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book.”
Does implementing a broad age verification requirement across the entire app store make things more difficult for the majority, while protecting the minority (AKA minors trying to gain access to adult-only platforms, like dating apps)? If so, is this fair?
Pitman questions whether the needs of the few should outweigh the constitutional rights of the many. This is the issue the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will continue to discuss when deciding whether to make the ASAA a permanent law.
“The Act is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book.” — U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman
Some people believe that a blanket age verification law violates people’s First Amendment rights, but others find the increased protections reassuring. After all, dating apps are not bookstores. They’re environments built with the expectation of intimacy.
Consent is essential in any environment, let alone online. The law recognizes that minors don’t always have the capacity to provide informed consent in certain adult situations. Should we assume they can fully understand the implications of consent in a dating app environment?
Other states aren’t so sure. Louisiana, Utah, and California have felt the need to develop their own versions of the ASAA, all of which have been passed, but have not yet gone into effect.
How Could the Law Affect the User Experience?
Ideally, legislation like the ASAA would strengthen age verification and age-based restrictions in app stores themselves, lowering the number of minors sneaking their way onto adult apps. But there’s an important consideration: The more safety precautions taken, the more friction users experience during the onboarding process.
Because the first point of friction occurs on the App Store or Google Play, dating apps can’t do much to help users navigate it. If a Texas user gets stuck in an age-verification or parental-consent process, the app developer has no opportunity to intervene because the user hasn’t reached the app yet.
“We built this bill to equip parents with common sense tools to protect their kids AND to survive court challenges by those who may have lesser priorities.” — Senator Angela Paxton
Imagine that a wall has been erected in front of your business. The wall directly affects your flow of customers, but you don’t control it and can’t remove it yourself. You can only hope that the people who built the wall know what they’re doing, and that your customers will have the stamina to push through.
If the ASAA becomes permanent, dating platforms will undoubtedly have to tweak their age verification systems to account for the first wall of defense at the app-store level. User flow itself will change, and apps’ onboarding, engagement, and interaction strategies will have to change with it.
This is a vital consideration for platforms, but for some of us on the outside, the issue is more black and white: friction is a small price to pay for keeping particularly vulnerable users — children — safe.
“We built this bill to equip parents with common sense tools to protect their kids AND to survive court challenges by those who may have lesser priorities,” said Sen. Angela Paxton, who authored the ASAA.
