Perez: App Store Bill is Wrong Solution to Keeping Kids Safe

In Texas, we value individual liberty, personal autonomy and the freedom to live our lives without heavy handed government rules and regulations. For generations we’ve rejected the idea that the government should control our personal choices. Just think of all those disastrous Biden administration policies that expanded government power, that thankfully President Trump has gotten rid of just this year. Texas has always stood fast in resisting government overreach from Washington, but now we are seeing a big government idea proposed right here in Texas that is simply not the right approach for our state: HB 4901.

The “app store bill” is designed to help keep kids safe online and would require app stores verify the age of users downloading every app on their platforms. While its heart is in the right place, and we all want to keep our kids safe, this bill misses the mark and would create significant concerns on several fronts while likely being easy to circumvent. The bill would degrade parents’ rights to choose what’s best for their kids, forcing a one-size-fits-all mandate on every Texas family. It would also create a burdensome requirement for downloading apps that will leave many adults unable to access apps as innocuous as the flashlight app without jumping through hoops.

Under HB 4901, all users would be required to verify their age before being allowed to download ANY apps. While appearing relatively straightforward the consequences and requirements for HB 4901 are far reaching and onerous. Imagine on the day the law takes effect every app going dark in Texas, everything from your flashlight to your alarm clock, until you verify your age. For most this will include sharing your driver’s license. For others, who do not have driver’s license like a senior or young adult, this would mean sharing your birth certificate just to download an app. It is overkill — overkill that will either result in Texans finding ways around the requirements or losing access to everything from their phone’s calculator to sports scores.

The proposal further includes several unworkable provisions that will create unintended consequences, like apps leaving Texas rather than being forced to collect troves of user data. The collection of data is a major responsibility for tech companies and app developers, and one they will not take lightly if we force them to collect drivers’ licenses and especially birth certificates. For the companies that leave, they will likely hope users in Texas revert to using VPNs or other ways to circumvent HB 4901’s requirements, thus the problem the legislature is trying to fix will remain. It’s likely the bill will even worsen the problem, as it will push users to darker places on the internet that could expose even more of them to bad actors.

Any kids’ safety solution that hopes to succeed must place parents at its heart, not the government. Mandating a one-size-fits-all policy from Austin, to be led by government bureaucrats, is a recipe for disaster, just ask anyone who was in Washington during the Biden administration. I know what’s best for my kids and I am responsible enough to set up parental controls for my kids on their internet-connected devices. The government shouldn’t assume that I’m irresponsible or that these companies are going to safely keep our private data without major failures in security.

Texas should stand with President Trump in embracing individual liberty, free expression, restoring parental autonomy, and cutting red tape to unleash prosperity. HB 4901 instead hurts parents’ rights to raise their children as they see fit, undermines every Texan’s privacy, and will likely not improve the experience for kids or families on the internet. If lawmakers proposed an idea that I thought would actually keep kids safe and improve the internet here in Texas I would support it, wholeheartedly. HB 4901 is just not it. Lawmakers need to go back to the drawing board if they really want to keep kids safe online.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Alma Perez, public relations chair for Hidalgo County Republican Party, as well as Rio Grande Valley field director for Texas Latino Conservatives. She previously served as president of Hidalgo County Young Republicans. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author.

The post Perez: App Store Bill is Wrong Solution to Keeping Kids Safe appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.