{"id":30423,"date":"2026-07-31T10:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=30423"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:48:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:48:03","slug":"sen-ossoff-launches-inquiry-into-app-store-age-ratings-to-help-protect-children-online","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-launches-inquiry-into-app-store-age-ratings-to-help-protect-children-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Launches Inquiry into App Store Age Ratings to Help Protect Children Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014\u00a0U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is pressuring Big Tech companies to crack down on apps that put kids at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Ossoff\u00a0launched\u00a0inquiries with\u00a0Apple<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Google<\/a>\u00a0about\u00a0their\u00a0app store\u00a0age rating\u00a0requirements\u00a0and\u00a0urged the tech companies to strengthen\u00a0the\u00a0default protections for minors and\u00a0provide further transparency around staffing,\u00a0reporting, enforcement, and metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\u00a0recent\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0highlighted\u00a0that\u00a0developers\u00a0play\u00a0a\u00a0significant\u00a0role in\u00a0determining\u00a0app\u00a0store age ratings, with little\u00a0external\u00a0review.\u00a0The report also\u00a0raises concerns\u00a0that parental controls are\u00a0heavily\u00a0reliant on\u00a0app\u00a0age ratings,\u00a0which\u00a0can\u00a0result in minors\u00a0being exposed to\u00a0harmful material\u00a0online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same report<\/a> documented an instance where the app store age rating for an app was quietly downgraded from 17+ to 12+ without clear justification, disrupting parental controls for families relying on the 17+ block to restrict access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIncorrect\u00a0age ratings can pose dangers to minors, by\u00a0facilitating\u00a0minors\u2019 use of apps that enable communication with online predators or provide access to inappropriate sexual content or other harmful material.\u00a0Child safety advocates have raised serious concerns that app store ratings may give parents a false sense of security and encourage minors to access content that many families\u00a0reasonably expect to be restricted,\u201d\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Ossoff\u00a0wrote.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect children online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April, Sen. Ossoff\u00a0launched inquiries<\/a>\u00a0with Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, and X over tech companies\u2019 advertisement and distribution of \u201cnudifying\u201d apps that allow users to swiftly create explicit images of children and teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last December, the U.S. Senate\u00a0passed<\/a>\u00a0Sens. Ossoff and Chuck Grassley (R-IA)\u2019s bipartisan\u00a0Preventing Child Trafficking Act of 2025<\/em>\u00a0to strengthen coordination between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to better stop child trafficking and protect kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2025, Sen. Ossoff\u00a0cosponsored<\/a>\u00a0the bipartisan\u00a0Kids Online Safety Act<\/em>, which would impose new requirements on digital platforms to protect children from being targeted online with harmful content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2025, Sen. Ossoff\u00a0cosponsored<\/a>\u00a0the bipartisan\u00a0Children and Teens\u2019 Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0)<\/em>\u00a0to limit use of children\u2019s information for individually targeted advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, Sen. Ossoff\u2019s bipartisan\u00a0REPORT Act<\/em>\u00a0with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)\u00a0became law<\/a>, which \u2014 for the first time \u2014 requires websites and social media platforms to report crimes involving Federal trafficking and enticement of children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Since the law\u2019s enactment, NCMEC\u00a0has seen<\/a>\u00a0a 952% increase in reports of child sex trafficking and a 77% increase in reports of online enticement of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Sens. Ossoff and Grassley\u2019s bipartisan\u00a0Preventing Child Sex Abuse Act of 2023<\/em>\u00a0was signed into law<\/a>, which strengthened Federal protections against the sexual abuse of\u00a0children, including online exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please find Sen. Ossoff\u2019s inquiries here with\u00a0Apple<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is pressuring Big Tech companies to crack down on apps that put kids at risk. Today,\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Ossoff\u00a0launched\u00a0inquiries with\u00a0Apple\u00a0and\u00a0Google\u00a0about\u00a0their\u00a0app store\u00a0age rating\u00a0requirements\u00a0and\u00a0urged the tech companies to strengthen\u00a0the\u00a0default protections for minors and\u00a0provide further transparency around staffing,\u00a0reporting, enforcement, and metrics. A\u00a0recent\u00a0report\u00a0highlighted\u00a0that\u00a0developers\u00a0play\u00a0a\u00a0significant\u00a0role in\u00a0determining\u00a0app\u00a0store age ratings, with little\u00a0external\u00a0review.\u00a0The report also\u00a0raises concerns\u00a0that parental controls are\u00a0heavily\u00a0reliant on\u00a0app\u00a0age ratings,\u00a0which\u00a0can\u00a0result in […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30423","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/30423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/30423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30426,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/30423\/revisions\/30426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}