As policymakers explore strategies to enhance youth safety in digital spaces, proposals to implement strict age verification and parental control measures at the app store level have gained more and more traction recently.
Last week, Utah became the first state to pass legislation requiring app stores to verify user ages and obtain parental consent for app downloads. Similar bills are advancing in over a dozen other states, and Capitol Hill ended 2024 with the introduction of two federal proposals by Rep. James and Sen. Lee of Utah (HR. 10364 and S. 5264, respectively).
While framed as child safety measures, these efforts are fundamentally flawed. Rather than protecting young people, these policies create new risks—forcing users to hand over sensitive personal data, exposing vulnerable youth to parental surveillance, and cutting off access to the same critical resources under attack in the offline world. These measures do little to address actual harms and instead introduce sweeping, impractical restrictions that will disproportionately impact marginalized communities, particularly LGBTQ+ youth.
A Flawed Approach That Puts Youth at Risk
Early age verification efforts primarily targeted social media platforms, but as enforcement proved impractical and ineffective, lawmakers began pushing for app stores to take on the role of gatekeepers. App store age verification proposals look to place all apps—from messaging and email to social media and entertainment—behind a digital wall, forcing users to provide sensitive personal data like government-issued IDs or biometric information to platforms like Google or Apple for access. It’s akin to barring teens from entering a library because one book might contain mature themes, or preventing them from visiting a theme park because alcohol is served somewhere on the premises.
These efforts have rightly faced significant opposition from privacy and digital rights advocates. Beyond the invasion of privacy and increased data collection, such measures would disproportionately harm LGBTQ+ youth, who rely on private, safe digital spaces for support, community, and identity exploration.
Increased Parental Surveillance
App store-based age verification proposals often require parental consent for all app downloads and account creations, regardless of content or rating. For LGBTQ+ youth in non-affirming homes, this can be devastating. The Trevor Project reports that a majority of LGBTQ+ youth live in environments where they cannot safely be open about their identities. Requiring parental approval for every download could expose them to scrutiny, force unwanted conversations, or even lead to rejection and homelessness. LGBTQ+ youth already make up 40% of the housing-insecure or homeless youth population, with family rejection as a leading cause.
A single app notification on a parent’s phone could put a young person at immediate risk—exposing them to conversion therapy, abuse, or forced displacement. What might seem like a benign measure to parents in affirming homes could become a dangerous flashpoint in non-affirming families. For LGBTQ+ youth, every app download notification carries the weight of potential harm, undermining the very idea that these policies are designed to protect minors.
Restricted Access to Supportive Resources
LGBTQ+ youth often turn to apps as safe havens where they can access mental health resources, explore their identities, and connect with affirming communities, this is especially true for questioning youth or youth living in non-affirming households who may have no alternative other than social media or apps to safely explore these issues. Requiring parental consent for app downloads blocks access to these critical supports, especially for youth who may be privately struggling with questions about their identity and may not be ready to share these questions with their parents or whose parents disapprove of LGBTQ+ expression or content generally. The simple fact that parents would have to be informed of and approve the use of any LGBTQ+ related apps in itself would certainly chill a youth’s ability to search for these resources independently. For example, an LGBTQ+ youth in a rural area with no access to in-person support groups might rely on apps to connect with peers and find mental health resources. Cutting off this access forces youth to navigate their identities in isolation, which can have devastating mental health consequences.
Consider this: LGBTQ+ youth are already at disproportionate risk for mental health struggles. According to the Trevor Project, 39% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered suicide in 2023, with even higher rates (46%) among transgender and nonbinary youth. Denying access to supportive apps only compounds these challenges, leaving vulnerable youth without the tools they need to survive and thrive.
Parental consent measures fail to distinguish between harmful material and resources designed to uplift and educate and do not leave room for situations where parents may be the ones directly and purposely blocking access to affirming or health providing LGBTQ+ apps and content that could provide a lifeline to LGBTQ+ youth they cannot find elsewhere. As a result, LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately harmed by policies that treat all app content as a potential threat.
Privacy & Data Security Risks
Requiring app stores to verify age and collect parental consent introduces profound privacy risks, particularly for LGBTQ+ youth. These measures often necessitate sensitive data collection, such as government-issued IDs or other identifying information, which could expose a young person’s LGBTQ+ status to unsupportive family members or malicious actors.
For LGBTQ+ youth, maintaining privacy is critical. 43% of transgender Americans lack IDs that reflect their affirmed name or gender, making these individuals particularly vulnerable to discrimination or exclusion when navigating identity verification processes.
The broader risks of data collection also cannot be ignored. Social media platforms and app stores alike are frequent targets of data breaches, and expanding their repositories of personal and private information only increases the likelihood of these incidents. For LGBTQ+ youth, a data breach that reveals app usage or browsing habits could have life-altering consequences, from forced outings to physical harm. Rather than ensuring safety, these policies introduce new vulnerabilities, undermining the ability of young people to explore their identities free from fear.
Driving Youth Elsewhere
Research shows that when access is restricted, young people don’t simply stop engaging online—they find alternative, often riskier, spaces. A recent study from the NYU Center for Social Media & Politics analyzed the effects of state age-verification laws on adult content platforms and found that while traffic to compliant sites dropped, searches for non-compliant alternatives surged.
The same pattern is likely to play out with broader app restrictions. If mainstream platforms become unusable, teens will turn to lesser-known, unmoderated platforms that lack even the most basic safety features. The idea that restricting access at the app store level will meaningfully protect young people ignores the reality of how digital spaces function.
A Better Path Forward
Age verification at any level, whether at the app store or social media platform level, is not the answer. It is a flawed, dangerous approach that fails to meaningfully address online risks while disproportionately harming marginalized youth. If policymakers truly want to protect young people online, they should prioritize privacy-first solutions that protect youth without forcing invasive data collection; promote digital literacy programs that empower young people to navigate online spaces safely; and, crucially, ensure marginalized communities retain equitable access to the resources they need without unnecessary barriers.
LGBTQ+ youth are not just another category of “minors” to protect—they face distinct challenges that demand thoughtful, inclusive policy solutions. Protecting youth should mean preserving their access to safety, affirmation, and community.