On behalf of the Developers Alliance, the leading advocate for developers, the companies they build, and the industries that rely on them, we write to express strong opposition to House Bill 226.
The Developers Alliance believes that protecting children’s privacy is the responsibility of every developer and platform, and that parents should be empowered to make decisions about the content their children consume. Laws that govern how kids download and interact with content should focus on protecting users, and not benefit one platform over another. However, while HB 226 aims to protect children, it fails to meet that standard and introduces broad mandates that would hurt the developers who build safe, educational, and age-appropriate content for kids.
HB 226 applies a one-size-fits-all model that requires parental consent for every app downloaded by a minor, regardless of its content or purpose. This approval mandate is unnecessary because parents already have the option to require notification for their kids’ app downloads.
Beyond parents and guardians, HB 226 places unrealistic responsibility on app stores to verify parental relationships. Since many children do not have government-issued IDs, the current online systems cannot reliably confirm whether the person providing consent is truly a parent or guardian. HB 266 also forces developers to handle large amounts of sensitive age-related data—whether they want the data or not—which is extremely expensive and complicated for small developers.
Furthermore, this bill would significantly restrict the growth of app businesses and limit kids’ access to beneficial content. If every app download requires approval, guardians will fall behind or simply ignore the notifications, making it harder for even the most age-appropriate apps to grow their business.
In contrast, large social media platforms, often the very apps parents are most concerned about, can bypass these rules entirely by paying to have their apps pre-installed on devices, sidestepping parental consent and data-sharing requirements.
Lastly, the bill will saddle small developers with incredible data processing and storage costs, regardless of whether or not they want or need age data. When app stores send age signals to every app, regardless of the content in the app, those apps now have to process, store, and secure this data. And for children’s data, this must all be in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Act. These are unnecessary costs, potentially in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, that small age-appropriate apps should be forced to deal with.
The Developers Alliance supports thoughtful age verification policies for apps that pose a risk to children. However, HB 226 would upend the entire ecosystem by forcing unnecessary compliance and financial burdens on developers who provide age-appropriate content, while letting the most prominent players write their own exemptions.
Sincerely,
Jake Ward
Chair, Developers Alliance
