Maryland’s ‘App Store Accountability Act’ idea: why blanket age verification at the store layer is risky
R Street argues Maryland HB1179 would push app stores toward broad age verification and parental consent gates, creating privacy/security risk and likely constitutional problems.
Original testimony (source): R Street Institute - “R Street Testimony in Opposition to MD HB 1179, App Store Accountability Act” (Mar 10, 2026)
What it says (in plain English)
R Street is opposing Maryland’s HB1179, which would effectively put age verification at the app store / device setup layer, and then require parental consent when a minor downloads or updates apps.
Their core argument: even if the goal (protecting kids) is valid, forcing app stores to become universal age gates has serious downsides.
The useful takeaways
- “Verify everyone at the door” is a high-friction default. If the store has to sort every user into age brackets, you end up pushing adults toward verification too (misclassification risk plus “prove you’re not a minor” dynamics).
- It creates a new, valuable data honeypot. Centralising age/identity signals at the store layer increases breach impact, and liability pressure can incentivise companies to retain more sensitive data than they otherwise would.
- Store-level mandates can be overbroad by design. R Street frames HB1179 as likely to collide with free expression concerns because it gates access to lots of lawful content, not just narrowly-defined harmful material.
- “Parental consent for every app action” becomes an ops and UX problem. Beyond the legal debate, this kind of rule can turn updates into consent events and complicate household device management.
What to do next (tiny wins)
- Audit your “age-restricted” surface area: list features/content that could trigger an age gate (chat, UGC, communities, mature topics), and note what happens if a platform starts enforcing age signals more aggressively.
- Design a graceful “consent interruption” path: if a store/platform requires parental involvement, make sure your onboarding and paywalls fail helpfully (save state, explain next step, don’t dead-end).
- Prepare a privacy stance: write a one-paragraph policy for what you would (and would not) ask users to provide if age checks become mandatory in a region.
Read the original: https://www.rstreet.org/outreach/r-street-testimony-in-opposition-to-md-hb-1179-app-store-accountability-act/
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