Congress mandates parental consent for kids' app downloads and data sharing

What it does

This bill requires app stores serving over 5 million U.S. users to verify the age of account holders, obtain parental consent for minors, and disclose to parents what data apps collect and share. App developers must respect these age verifications, notify app stores of major changes, and cannot share age data with third parties. The FTC enforces the rules, and states can sue violators.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a regulatory framework mandating age verification, parental consent, and data transparency in app stores. It is functionally a consumer-protection and child-safety statute, not a tax measure, subsidy, or commemorative act.

What the text implies

• App stores will need to implement or upgrade age-verification infrastructure, creating operational costs that may be passed to developers or users through higher fees or reduced app availability.
• The requirement that app developers use app-store-provided age signals as 'actual knowledge' of a user's age may shield developers from liability even if they fail to implement additional safeguards, creating a potential loophole.
• Parental consent requirements may reduce app engagement among minors, affecting ad-supported and in-app-purchase revenue models for apps targeting younger users.
• The 1-year FTC guidance window and 1-year compliance deadline create a compressed timeline; ambiguity in 'commercially available' age-verification methods may lead to inconsistent implementation and enforcement disputes.
• Preemption of state laws (Section 9) prevents states from imposing stricter protections, potentially locking in a federal floor that some states view as insufficient.

Who it affects

Ordinary citizens—especially parents and children—gain meaningful protections: mandatory age verification, parental consent requirements, and transparency about data collection and sharing. These reduce the risk of minors accessing inappropriate content and being exploited for data. The compliance burden on app stores and developers is material but justified by the public-health and privacy benefit.

Who stands to gain

• age-verification technology providers
• identity-verification service companies
• compliance and legal consulting firms
• parental-control software vendors

Named in the bill

Federal Trade Commission (FTC), app store providers (Apple, Google, Amazon, etc.), app developers, state attorneys general, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

Where it stands

2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.

• May 1, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• May 1, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade”
• Dec 11, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

46 lobbying clients named this bill on 65 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $56,399,409 in lobbying spend. A filing names 17 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 99% of bills with at least one filing.

John James, the sponsor, reported $224,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Google Client Services LLC — $6,920,000 on 2 filings
• Ncta - the Internet & Television Association — $6,870,000 on 2 filings
• Meta Platforms, Inc. and Various Subsidiaries — $5,990,000 on 1 filing
• National Retail Federation — $3,881,000 on 2 filings
• Ctia-the Wireless Association — $3,640,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.