By Nansen Malin, Washington State Parents for Smart Tech

If we are serious about keeping our teens safe online, there needs to be an all-hands-on-deck effort. That means cooperation between parents, the government, and the tech companies that make the devices and platforms teens are spending an inordinate amount of time on. 

If efforts from parents and policymakers are narrowly targeted on a single platform – like Snapchat, YouTube, or Instagram – we will only solve one sliver of the issue. In fact, it may not fix anything at all because astute teens are likely to simply switch to an unregulated or new platform. 

While social media platforms only have oversight over their own practices, tech companies that manufacture devices have a unique superpower – their app stores. These hubs, where users find and download apps to their devices, give device manufacturers like Apple and Google the distinct ability to exert control over any app – be it a social media platform, video game, or photo editing app.

Given this, Apple and Google are both key players in the fight to ensure teens are kept safe online. The Apple App Store and Google Play Store can set up powerful guardrails that give parents the chance to stop their teenagers from downloading new apps. This straightforward approach would simplify the process for parents looking to have oversight of their teen’s online activity and have the important benefit of blocking teens’ access to creepy apps looking to steal their private information as soon as they are downloaded onto their devices. 

I would expect Apple and Google to come to the table and work with parents and legislators to advance this policy. However, the Wall Street Journal recently exposed how Apple actively worked to block this exact proposal when Louisiana state legislators tried to include it in their youth safety bill. Apple leveraged its lobbying might to unceremoniously remove the proposal from the final legislation at the very last minute, steamrolling over the lead sponsor of the bill, freshman Louisiana legislator Kim Carver. Advocates for the bill told the reporter that Apple had taken advantage of Carver’s “newness” on the job and led him to believe the measure didn’t have support when the opposite was true. 

Why did the Wall Street Journal deem a last-minute amendment to a Louisiana state bill worthy of investigating? The same reason we should care about it here in Washington State. Apple’s actions in Louisiana make it clear as day that they have no intention of stepping up to protect teens that use their devices. If Apple remains an enemy of good policies like this it will be devastating blow to our efforts – especially since studies have shown that  95% of teens use an iPhone. How can we possibly implement fulsome youth safety policies without Apple’s partnership – or at least cooperation?

As Washington’s representatives consider proposals to protect our kids, I hope they keep the warnings of Kim Carver in mind and don’t allow Apple to shirk their responsibility to American families who use their devices nearly every minute of every day. 

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Washington State Parents for Smart Tech is a group of parents interested in solutions that streamline and simplify parental controls on social media so parents can ensure their kids develop healthy social media habits.