Parents Over Platforms Act

The "Parents Over Platforms Act" aims to enhance the protection of minors within the mobile ecosystem by establishing comprehensive age assurance practices for application distributors and developers. It defines key terms such as "Minor," "Adult," "Application Distribution Provider," and "Covered Application," which refers to applications offering different experiences for adults and minors or intended solely for adults. Under this Act, Application Distribution Providers , such as app stores, are required to ask account holders for their age upon creation and may use commercially reasonable efforts to ascertain their age category. They must also provide a technical mechanism for developers of Covered Applications to receive an "Age Signal" indicating a user's age category, provided the user or parent consents to sharing this information. Furthermore, these providers must enable parents to prevent minors from acquiring or using specific Covered Applications and offer developers the ability to block non-adult users. Developers of Covered Applications have significant obligations, including reporting to distributors whether their applications provide different experiences based on age. They must use commercially reasonable efforts to determine if a user is an Adult or Minor, with an Age Signal from a distributor generally considered sufficient for this purpose. Crucially, developers are prohibited from delivering personalized advertising to Minors and must obtain consent before minors access age-gated content or unsuitable application portions without parental guidance. The bill also outlines limitations on liability for good faith compliance by both application distributors and developers, encouraging adherence to the new standards. Violations of the Act will be treated as unfair or deceptive acts or practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act, granting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement authority. The Act preempts any related state laws and will take effect 24 months after its enactment.