Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Senate committee advances App Store Accountability Act after hours of public testimony
Summary
The Senate Transportation committee adopted a first substitute and gave a unanimous favorable recommendation to SB 142, the App Store Accountability Act, following extensive testimony for and against age-verification and parental-consent requirements for app stores.
Senator Wyler's App Store Accountability Act (SB 142) was substituted and advanced out of the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Standing Committee with a unanimous favorable recommendation after more than two hours of public comment and debate.
The bill would require app stores to provide mechanisms for parental approval and to verify users' ages so that minors cannot enter binding app-store contracts or access age-inappropriate apps without parental consent. Sponsors and advocates characterized the measure as restoring parental oversight; opponents warned it would create privacy and security risks, impose burdens on small developers and likely face constitutional challenges.
Proponents, including sponsor Senator Weiler (Senator Wyler in parts of the transcript) and witnesses such as Melissa McKay, urged the committee to adopt age-verification standards tied to parental consent. McKay, identified herself as “a Utah mother to five children and a device and online…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
