API’s Stephanie Smith on The App Store Accountability Act

Alabama Policy Institute (API) President Stephanie Smith called into Priority Talk Radio to talk with ALCAP President Greg Davis about her opinion article concerning The App Store Accountability Act (SB187), sponsored by State Senator Clyde Chambliss and Representative Chris Sells.

The bill reads as follows: “[This bill would] require an app store provider to take certain actions regarding age verification, parental notification, and data protection; to prohibit an app store provider or developer from taking certain actions that allow minors to access apps without parental consent; and to authorize the Attorney General to bring an action for a violation as a deceptive trade practice.”

For years, Davis and Smith have been working on “trying to hold people accountable for the pornography and filth that is on people’s phones, specifically protecting children from accidental and also predatory use of that type of material on digital media.” This bill, along with another (SB186, which seeks to have an adult content filters on phones turned on at activation for minors), are designed to protect children from pornography.

Regarding SB187, Stephanie Smith says, “There are physical stores and there are digital stores. With physical stores, we hold people accountable for what they sell children. And we also don’t let children just walk in and sign a contract or buy something that’s inappropriate for their use. On the digital side, children are signing contracts with apps… There will be pornography and inappropriate material put on these apps but the app developers and the people who are having the app come through their store don’t vet it and don’t make sure there is not inappropriate material for children on there.”

SB187 is designed to close this loophole by enforcing age-verification measures for app stores. To listen to their entire informative conversation, click here.