Parents Over Platforms Act

This bill requires app stores (Application Distribution Providers) and app developers to implement age assurance systems to protect minors, with enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission. It sets rules for age signals, parental controls, and limits on personalized advertising to minors.

Sec. 2, Definitions: Defines key terms including Adult (18+), Minor (under 18), Age Signal (shared age category data), Application Distributor (app store), Covered Application (apps with different experiences for adults vs. minors), and Personalized Advertising (ads based on user activity across non-affiliated sites, with exceptions).

Title I, Sec. 101, Age assurance: App stores must ask users their age when creating an account, may use reasonable methods to estimate age, provide a way for users to check and update their age category, and give developers of Covered Applications the technical ability to call an Age Signal if the user or parent agrees.

Title I, Sec. 102, Application distributor and developer obligations: App stores must let parents block minors from getting or using Covered Applications, give developers tools to block non-adults, provide a centralized page for parental controls, and not use data from third-party apps anticompetitively. Developers of Covered Applications must report if their app has different adult/minor experiences, provide privacy and safety info, use reasonable efforts to determine user age (an Age Signal from the app store counts as reasonable effort, but for adult-only apps, an Adult Age Signal alone is not enough), block minors from adult-only activities, get consent before minors access age-gated content, not deliver personalized ads to minors, and limit use of age data to compliance purposes. Developers of Covered Websites have the same requirements.

Title II, Sec. 201, Limitations on liability: App stores and operating system providers are not liable for good-faith compliance efforts, including erroneous Age Signals, developer conduct, or technical failures. Developers are solely liable for correctly identifying their apps as Covered Applications, and are not liable for erroneous Age Signals if they use them reasonably.

Title II, Sec. 202, Enforcement: Violations are treated as unfair or deceptive acts under the FTC Act, enforced by the FTC with the same powers and penalties.

Title II, Sec. 203, Preemption: States cannot enforce any laws related to this Act's provisions.

Title II, Sec. 204, Severability: If any part of the Act is invalid, the rest remains in effect.

Title II, Sec. 205, Effective date: The Act takes effect within 24 months of enactment.