Parents Decide Act

Parents Decide Act

This bill establishes age-verification requirements for providers of operating systems, which includes software that supports the basic functions of a computer, mobile device, or other general purpose computing device.

First, operating system providers must require users to provide their date of birth to set up an account on, and use, the operating system. If the user is under 18 years old, the operating system must require a parent or legal guardian to verify the user's date of birth.

Additionally, operating system providers must develop a system to allow app developers to access information necessary to verify the date of birth of a user of the developer's app.

The bill provides for enforcement of these requirements by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The FTC also must issue regulations on how operating system providers can (1) verify the date of birth of a parent or legal guardian and carry out requirements for verifying the ages of users, (2) secure data collected through the verification process, and (3) ensure parents or legal guardians have control over what users who are under 18 years old are able to access on a device.

The FTC must brief Congress on the rulemaking process and report on how operating system providers carry out the requirements of the bill.