Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Washington for a personal meeting with members of the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. The main topic of discussion was the App Store Responsibility Bill, which would require companies to verify users' ages when creating accounts and obtain parental consent for children under 16 to download apps. MacRumors reports this with reference to Bloomberg.
Cook told lawmakers that proposed verification methods should not require the collection of sensitive data such as birth certificates or Social Security numbers. According to the head of Apple, it is enough to trust the age information that parents provide when creating a child's account, and any data used for verification will not be stored by the app store or the developer.
Apple previously sent a letter to the commission protesting. Apple's head of privacy, Hilary Ware, warned that the law “could threaten the privacy of all users by forcing millions of adults to reveal personal information just to download an app.” Instead, Apple offers its own model, allowing parents to share only the child's age with the developer without sharing specific data.
The company actively opposes the bill because it does not want to be legally responsible for verifying age, obtaining parental consent, and monitoring developers' compliance with rules, while avoiding bulk document collection from users. As an alternative, Apple introduced new parental control tools, age categories for content, and a special API that allows developers to take into account users' ages without violating their privacy.
According to Apple, existing measures like the Screen Time feature are sufficient and the law would require the company to collect excess information from all users just to verify the age of children.
Texas has passed similar legislation (SB2420) that will take effect on January 1, 2026, requiring Apple to verify the age and identity of parents for users in that region.
The Energy and Commerce Committee's decision will be announced at a later date.
