Apple helped kill part of a ‘child safety’ bill, but more legislative fights are expected

Apple is bracing for a conflict with app developers and state lawmakers as legislators across the country explore regulations on teen smartphone usage. The central debate revolves around whether regulating teen social media should be solely the responsibility of app developers or if smartphone manufacturers and app stores should also play a role.

Jeff Horwitz and Aaron Tilley for The Wall Street Journal:
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Earlier this year, freshman Louisiana legislator Kim Carver got a close look at Apple’s formidable lobbying machine.

After adding a provision to a social-media bill requiring the tech company to help enforce age restrictions and prevent minors from downloading some apps, Carver got a flurry of texts before he got off the floor of the Louisiana House of Representatives… Before Carver’s bill in Louisiana, Apple had largely managed to stay out of the fray, but that is expected to change as lawmakers nationwide seek to confront the issue. Social-media platforms and many youth-safety advocates argue that effective content restrictions will require some form of age verification from Apple and Google, the duopoly that oversees operating-system software for the world’s billions of smartphones…

Carver began hearing rumblings that Apple was making inroads with the committee — his amended bill might be in trouble. Uncertain on how to proceed, he approached the chairwoman of the committee, Sen. Beth Mizell, for advice… [I]n the end, he promised not to object if she removed the app store provisions or support restoring them on the Senate floor.

“I made the choice to take the win that we could get,” Carver said.

At a committee hearing in May, Mizell proposed removing app stores from the bill on the grounds that the approach wasn’t proven.
With the app store provision removed, Carver’s bill targeting social-media companies sailed through. An Apple lobbyist thanked Carver for not seeking to restore the amendment on the Senate floor.

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MacDailyNews Take: iPhones are simply a tool. A blank canvas. A thin slab of glass. The app developers who are creating certain apps that cause issues among teens should be responsible for limiting their apps’ use among teens, not Apple.

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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]

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