Meta has advocated for the implementation of legislation requiring parental approval before children can download apps.
Currently, both Apple’s App Store for iPhones and iPads and Google’s Play Store for Android devices lack age verification measures during app installations, prompting Meta to call for a change.
Under Meta’s proposal, more responsibility would be placed on parents, as well as on Google and Apple, to safeguard younger users from potentially harmful apps.
The suggested plan involves app stores notifying parents when their teenagers express interest in downloading an app, akin to the way they are alerted when a child intends to make an in-app purchase. Subsequently, parents would have the authority to approve or deny the download request.
The company’s safety chief emphasized the need for a “simple, industry-wide solution” to regulate children’s use of social media.
This move by Meta comes amid increasing legal challenges related to its management of child and teen usage, and a week after a whistleblower informed the US Congress that he believed Instagram was not adequately protecting teens from online threats.
