There has been growing debate over whether app stores should take on the responsibility of age verification. Some tech companies, including Meta and Snap, have suggested that app stores should enforce these age restrictions, preventing underage users from downloading apps intended for adults. Others, such as Google (which operates its own app store) and Apple oppose this shift in responsibility from individual apps and platforms to app stores themselves.
But would requiring app stores to verify users’ ages actually solve the problem of protecting children from inappropriate content? A closer look reveals significant challenges, making it clear that app store age restrictions alone would not be an effective solution, but that’s not to rule out age signals from app stores or wallets being a useful addition to the ecosystem in some use cases.
1. The Proximity Principle: Age Checks Should Happen Where Content is Accessed
For age verification to be effective, it should happen as close as possible to the moment a user tries to access age-restricted content or services. This principle is already applied in sectors such as gambling, adult content, and dating, where verification occurs at the point of sign-up or content access.
App store-based age checks, by contrast, happen much earlier in the process—at the point of installation—long before a user engages with any specific content. This approach may fail to prevent underage access to inappropriate material within apps that contain mixed-age content, such as social media platforms or online gaming services unless access to the apps as a whole is prohibited, which may create concerns about free speech and child rights to knowledge, networks and support.
For instance, a child who is old enough to install a general-use app (like a messaging platform) might still be exposed to age-inappropriate content once they start using it. Without ongoing verification at the point of content access, app store restrictions may still be ineffective.
And while apps are very popular with children and young people not all harmful content is hosted within an app. Content accessed through browsers would not necessarily be restricted without significantly designing the architecture of the Internet as a whole.
2. Privacy and Security Risks of Centralised Age Verification
If app stores were responsible for age verification, they would need to collect and store users’ age data. This raises major privacy and data security concerns, including:
- The creation of a centralised database of sensitive personal data, which could become a target for hackers and lead to large-scale data breaches.
- The risk that app store operators monetise or track users based on their verified age status, potentially leading to increased surveillance and profiling.
- The challenge of ensuring compliance with global data protection laws, especially when handling minors’ data across multiple jurisdictions.
By contrast, existing independent age verification solutions are designed to minimise data collection and storage, reducing these risks.
3. Increased Burden on Parents Without Guaranteeing Better Outcomes
One argument in favour of app store-based age verification is that it would help parents manage their children’s access to online content. However, real-world evidence suggests otherwise.
Many platforms already offer parental controls, yet adoption remains extremely low. For example, less than 1% of U.S. parents use Snapchat and Discord’s parental controls, despite these being widely available. The reasons include:
- The complexity of setting up controls across multiple devices and services.
- Children pressuring or tricking parents into bypassing restrictions.
- Lack of awareness or technical understanding among parents.
If app store-based age verification simply adds another layer of parental responsibility, without improving usability or enforcement, it is unlikely to be effective. Instead, system-level solutions that minimise reliance on parental input—such as age checks at the content access level—would be more reliable.
4. Unintended Consequences: Stifling Innovation and Increasing Costs
Mandating age verification at the app store level could lead to several unintended negative consequences, including:
- Smaller developers struggling to comply, as they may lack the resources to meet certification requirements.
- Some platforms choosing to exclude minors entirely, rather than taking on the regulatory burden of age verification—potentially depriving young people of safe, age-appropriate online experiences.
- Higher compliance costs being passed on to users or app developers, potentially discouraging innovation in the sector.
- Regulatory inconsistencies across different countries, making enforcement complex and legally contentious.
Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach at the app store level, a more context-sensitive, service-based approach would allow for better outcomes without stifling competition or innovation.
Other Key Reasons Why App Store-Based Age Verification Falls Short
Beyond these core issues, several other limitations make app store-based age verification an incomplete solution:
5. App Store Age Ratings Are Inconsistent and Limited
- App store age ratings are often self-declared by developers, with little oversight or independent review.
- Apps with user-generated content (such as social media platforms) can expose children to inappropriate material that wasn’t reflected in the initial age rating.
- Ratings remain static, while app content can evolve over time.
6. In-App Content and Advertisements Are Not Covered
- Once an app is installed, children can still be exposed to inappropriate ads, user-generated content, or in-app purchases.
- App stores do not regulate what happens inside the app, making installation-based restrictions ineffective. For example, many apps have Internet browsers built within them, providing a portal to the wider content across the web.
7. Workarounds: Sideloading and Third-Party App Stores
- Users can bypass official app store restrictions by sideloading apps or using alternative app stores, many of which lack age controls. While Apple and Google dominate the market at the moment, legal initiatives such as the Digital Markets Act in the EU are seeking to generate a more diverse market for app stores, requiring a wider implementation of age controls.
8. Device and Account Sharing Undermines Age Checks
- Shared devices (such as family tablets or smart TVs) allow younger users to access age-restricted apps downloaded by adults.
- Unlike some online platforms, app stores do not require ongoing authentication to ensure the verified user is still the one accessing the content.
9. Apps Change Over Time, Rendering Age Checks Outdated
- Age verification at the installation stage does not account for app updates, new features, or changes in content that may introduce new risks over time.
10. No Universal Standards Across App Stores
- Different app stores have varying policies, leading to gaps and inconsistencies in enforcement across platforms.
A More Comprehensive Approach is Needed
While app stores can play a role in online safety, they cannot be relied upon as the primary solution for age verification. A more effective and proportional approach would include:
✅ Age checks at the point of content access – ensuring that verification happens in real time, rather than just at installation.
✅ Privacy-preserving solutions – using independent, tokenised age verification methods that do not centralise sensitive data.
✅ A layered approach to age assurance – combining publisher-based verification, parental controls, and device-level safeguards to provide multiple layers of protection.
✅ Education and parental awareness – supporting parents with easy-to-use tools, rather than assuming they will manually enforce restrictions on every device.
Simply put, app store-based age verification may be helpful, but it is far from a silver bullet. Without real-time, context-sensitive age checks, children will continue to find ways to access inappropriate content—regardless of app store restrictions
