To Keep Tennessee Kids Safe, Close the App Store Gap
Washington loves to talk about protecting kids and upholding family values, but here in Tennessee, we’re turning those commitments into real policy.
Tennessee has set the standard for promoting healthy digital habits. Just this session, lawmakers passed the Teen Social Media and Internet Safety Act, directing the Department of Education to create a comprehensive 6 to 12th grade internet safety curriculum and blocking kids’ access to social media platforms on school-provided Wi-Fi.
These policies reduce distractions, curb excessive screentime, and help address cyberbullying, something 54% of Tennessee youth report experiencing at least once. Just as importantly, they reflect a broader effort to make the online world safer for kids without undermining parents’ rights, family privacy, or free speech.
Tennessee lawmakers understand that raising capable, well-adjusted, and risk-aware kids in a digital world requires both education and supervision. The goal isn’t heavy-handed bans on apps and websites. It’s giving parents and educators the tools to guide kids’ digital lives on their own terms.
That’s exactly what the App Store Accountability Act (H.R. 3149/S. 1586) aims to do.
The federal bill, led by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Representative John James (R-MI) strengthens our existing youth safety laws by establishing parental supervision at the app store – the blind spot in most parents’ view of their kids’ digital lives.
Thanks to state-level laws, Tennessee parents can rest assured that their kids aren’t accessing social media platforms during school hours and that minors aren’t opening social media accounts without parental consent.
However, national data shows kids use over three dozen apps on their devices, many of which fall outside the narrow description of a social media platform. These anonymous messaging apps, AI chatbots, violent video games, and AI image generators are lesser-known breeding grounds for child predators, scam artists, and extortionists to prey on our youth.
Today on the app store, Tennessee children can download millions of these apps in just a few clicks, entering binding agreements that hand their location, microphone, camera, and browsing data over to app developers. At no point in the process are parents given a chance to review accurate information about each app and determine if it is appropriate or provide parental consent to the contract that their minor child taps into.
The App Store Accountability Act would change that.
The bill, which is supported by 88% of parents nationwidestore level according to national polling data, would establish secure, one-step age verification at the app store-level, creating a mechanism for parents to review, block, and approve minors’ app downloads from an interface they know and trust. Unlike app-by-app safety features, which often require parents to repeatedly upload their sensitive personal information, the App Store Accountability Act creates a one-stop shop for parents to monitor and guide their kids’ digital lives.
These app store-level protections are an important piece of a layered approach to protecting kids online. For example, consider Senator Blackburn’s Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) (S.1748), which would require online platforms to automatically enable the highest safety settings by default for users under 16, disclose algorithmic usage, and provide parental supervision tools. Together, KOSA and the App Store Accountability Act would mean that kids aren’t just better protected on social media platforms; they’re protected from the moment they open the app store. That is a way to ensure our children’s digital lives will become safer.
By ensuring parents, not tech companies or anonymous developers, remain the primary decision-makers in a child’s life, these proposals ensure the values we talk about – responsibility, safety, and family – are reflected in the systems our kids use every day.
Thankfully, Tennessee is well-represented in Washington by Senator Marsha Blackburn, who has helped make protecting kids online a national priority. Senator Blackburn has already shown the country what principled leadership on child safety looks like. Now, Congress should finish the job and help Tennessee families secure a safer, stronger digital future for the next generation by championing the App Store Accountability Act along with KOSA as a holistic approach to keeping kids safe online.
Walter Blanks Jr serves as the Executive Director of the Legacy Society.