Meta, the former Facebook, has advocated for legislation requiring app stores to obtain parental consent before allowing any teen under the age of sixteen to download an app.
“We support federal legislation that requires app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps,” Antigone Davis, the global head of safety at Meta, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “Parents should approve their teen’s app downloads.”
Meta’s justification was based on a recent Pew study that revealed 81% of US adults were in favor of requiring parental approval before allowing teenagers to open social media accounts.
Davis explained with this solution, when a teen wants to download an app, the app stores would be required to notify their parents, much like when parents are notified if their teen attempts to make a purchase.
“Parents can decide if they want to approve the download. They can also verify the age of their teen when setting up their phone, negating the need for everyone to verify their age multiple times across multiple apps,” she said.
The post comes as the company faces a slew of lawsuits over its handling of child and teen use. A whopping 42 US states sued Meta last month over claims Facebook and Instagram “profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans”.
The court order deals with “over 140 actions” and individual lawsuits filed against the companies.
A US federal court has denied the social media companies’ request to have dozens of lawsuits dismissed, alleging that the platforms they operate are “addictive” to children and that they disseminate materials that promote child sex abuse.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied their motion, ruling that Meta, ByteDance, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), and Snap (the parent company of Snapchat) must move forward with a lawsuit claiming that children’s use of their social media platforms is negatively impacted by mental health issues.
