The bill, pushed as a way to protect children online, has drawn the attention of tech titans Apple, Google and Meta, which have waded into the debate.
Originally, House Bill 570, by Rep. Kim Carver, R-Mandeville, would have only required stores like Google Play and Apple's App Store to collect and verify users ages. The stores would have further been required to link minor accounts to parental accounts, and parents would have needed to sign off on all downloads.
But after a fierce debate in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs on Wednesday, the bill was expanded to also require all app developers to age-verify users and obtain parental consent for minors to use their apps.
That provision came through an amendment by state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, who said it would place equal responsibility on app stores and app developers alike.
His reasoning appeared to grow out of a disagreement between Google and Meta.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has advocated for legislation similar to the original version of HB570 since 2023. The company said the proposal would put parents in better control of their kids' online interactions and provide apps with important age information so that those apps could cater appropriate experiences online.
But Google slammed the original legislation, raising privacy concerns about the bill, which it said could require app stores to check users' government IDs. The company also argued the legislation was a way for Meta to shirk its responsibility to kids' safety and would not make any meaningful changes to teens' experiences on social media.
Apple also lodged its opposition to the bill before Morris amended it.
Carver has said he is reviewing Morris' amendments to his bill.
"I like the bill the way it was," he said. But "if (the amendments) strengthen the bill, then I'm happy that he added them on."
It is not clear whether Meta supports HB570 in its latest form. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment, saying Meta was analyzing what the amendments meant for the bill.
Meta has supported proposals similar to Carver's original bill in states like Utah and Texas.
Currently, Apple and Google app stores offer programs that allow parents to approve their kids' app downloads, but they are optional. Those programs are Google Family Link and Ask to Buy.
HB570 would also require app stores to share data about a user's "age category" with app developers. The store would tell the developer whether a user is a child (under age 13), a younger teen (between ages 13 and 15), an older teen (age 16 or 17) or an adult.
WHAT AGE VERIFICATION WOULD ENTAIL
It is not entirely clear what companies would be required to do to verify users' ages.
The bill directs app stores to "verify the individual's age category using commercially available methods that are reasonably designed to ensure accuracy."
Carver said connecting a credit card to an app store should be a sufficient way to verify age, and that parents could attest to the age of their children.
But Kareem Ghanem, Google 's Senior Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy, said the bill comes with a risk: "that app stores would be forced to ask for government IDs, government documents, other invasive forms of ID verification in order to let people use app stores and use their mobile phones."
Though standard practice is to verify a user's age based on whether they have a credit card, Ghanem said HB570 does not make it clear what would constitute sufficient compliance with the law.
Carver called statements that his bill would mean companies have to collect invasive personal information "misleading" and a "scare tactic."
META SUPPORTED ORIGINAL BILL
Nicole Lopez, Meta's Director of Global Litigation Strategy for Youth, vouched for the original version of HB570 during a House Commerce Committee meeting in April.
"This is what parents want," she said.
Lopez argued the bill would have prevented parents from repeatedly having to provide personal information every time their child downloads an app.
The bill is also a viable solution to age verification challenges because "we don't have to start from scratch," Lopez said. Apple and Google "already have the infrastructure in place to get parent approval before teens can make in-app purchases."
Since app stores would share age range information with individual apps, the bill would enable apps like Meta to "ensure that the teen is placed in an age-appropriate, supervised experience where possible," Lopez said.
Meta has, for example, created Instagram Teen Accounts, which automatically place stricter privacy settings on accounts for users aged 13 to 17, Lopez said. Teens under 16 need parental permission to change those settings, she added.
GOOGLE SLAMS BILL
Where Meta saw a benefit to having app stores share age information with apps, Google saw a privacy concern.
While it would be appropriate to share such information with certain apps, including social media apps, age is irrelevant for many others, said Kareem Ghanem, Google's Senior Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy. As an example, he noted he has an app to open his garage door.
The bill "requires us to share way more data than is actually needed to keep kids safe," he said.
Bills like HB570 are a way for social media companies to shirk their responsibility to make kids safer online, Ghanem said of the original proposal. While Google supports legislation to that end, new laws ought to create a shared responsibility between social media companies and app stores, he added.
"Why is Mark Zuckerberg so keen on passing these bills? And the answer's clear. It's because it doesn't do anything to change how his business operates, and it creates this false sense of security by saying were going to age verify everybody on the app stores, we're going to share that data with everybody," Ghanem said. "But in reality, does it change anything on Instagram? It doesn't."
When she testified in committee, Lopez said legislators would hear arguments that Meta only supported age verification legislation to "shove the responsibility off to Apple and Google."
She pushed back on that notion.
"We're not abandoning age assurance. We recognize that people may still find ways to bypass what we think is the most viable solution here," Lopez said. "And so we will continue to use AI and age verification checkpoints to check age liars. There will just be fewer of them."
Earlier this year, Utah became the first state to pass legislation requiring app stores to age-verify users. Texas followed suit, with Gov. Greg Abbott signing a similar bill into law on Tuesday, according to a Reuters report.
HB570 must pass the full Senate and then get a final sign-off from the House before it heads to Gov. Jeff Landry's desk. It would not be effective until July 2026.
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