H.R. 6333 — Parents Over Platforms Act

This section establishes age assurance responsibilities for application distribution providers (i.e., entities such as app stores), requiring them to (1) ask account holders to declare their age upon account creation; (2) use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain account holders' age categories with reasonable certainty; (3) provide account holders a mechanism to access their age category and request updates if incorrect; and (4) enable developers of covered applications to access an age signal for consenting account holders or their parents. It clarifies that providers may use multiple methods to determine age categories or obtain a minor's age from the parent.

This section establishes obligations for application distribution providers (i.e., app stores) and developers of covered applications (i.e., apps subject to the Act, typically those accessible to minors). Specifically, it requires application distribution providers to (1) enable parents to block non-adult account holders from acquiring or using covered applications and enable developers to do the same; (2) host a centralized page or interface for developers to provide parental control information; (3) comply with developer obligations for their own covered applications; and (4) refrain from anticompetitive use of third-party compliance data. It further requires developers of covered applications to (1) report whether their app provides a different experience for adults versus non-adults or is adults-only; (2) disclose privacy and online safety settings to aid parental oversight (unless adults-only and blocking minors); (3) use commercially reasonable efforts to verify user age, with age signals from providers generally sufficient; (4) block minors from adults-only activities; (5) obtain consent for minors' access to age-inappropriate content; and (6) prohibit personalized advertising to minors. Developers using age signals or alternative age verification methods must minimize data collection, avoid disregarding age data, limit sharing to necessary service providers for child safety, and restrict use to Act compliance (e.g., no inferring birthdates). It permits developers controlled by the same entity as a provider to rely on that entity's age determinations and extends the same requirements to developers of covered websites, who may use app store age signals.

This section limits liability under the Act for application distribution providers and operating system providers that make a good faith compliance effort regarding Age Signals (1) for any erroneous Age Signal, (2) for conduct by developers of covered applications receiving an Age Signal, (3) for failures to provide an Age Signal due to reasonable technical limitations or outages, and (4) for not providing Age Signals to developers not adhering to reasonable safety standards and distributor policies. The section further provides that developers of covered applications are solely liable (as between developers and distributors) for correctly identifying their applications as covered, with distributors having no proactive identification obligation or liability for developer misrepresentations, and shields developers from liability for erroneous Age Signals if they make reasonable efforts to use the signal and estimate account holder age.

This section establishes Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement of the Act by (1) treating a violation of the Act or a regulation promulgated thereunder as a violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)); (2) directing the FTC to enforce the Act in the same manner, by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of the Act; (3) subjecting violators to the penalties and entitling them to the privileges and immunities provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act; and (4) preserving the Commission's authority under any other provision of law.

This section preempts any state or local law, rule, regulation, requirement, standard, or other provision related to the Act.

This section establishes a severability clause, providing that if any provision of the Act, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of the Act remains in effect.