On the heels of Minnesota passing restrictive social media guardrails for kids, federal lawmakers are preparing to follow suit with a wave of digital safety legislation.

The debate surrounding these bills is almost universally framed around protection and safety. Beneath that well intentioned rhetoric, however, lies a complex web of unintended consequences that risks failing our most vulnerable youth by creating new hazards around data privacy and surveillance. There is one proposal before Congress that avoids those traps, and it deserves far more attention than it is getting: the App Store Accountability Act.

We hear the stories of hundreds of transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive youth across our state. Every month, we watch isolated teenagers transform the moment they realize they are not alone. For these young people, the internet is far more than a place to scroll. It is a vital lifeline.

Related: What to know about Minnesota’s ban on ‘addictive’ social media that awaits Walz’s signature 

Picture a young teen walking into a high school where they feel completely isolated, only to go home to a family that still struggles to understand or accept their identity. In that young person’s life, an online forum or a digital peer support group is not entertainment. It is often the only place they can ask a question without fear, find trusted mental health resources and hear the simple, lifesaving validation that they matter. 

The App Store Accountability Act offers a safe path forward by handling verification at the app store ecosystem level, keeping sensitive identity data off individual apps while preserving confidential access to support networks. Verification happens one time, in one place, when a device is first set up. From there, individual apps receive confirmation of an age category and nothing further. No forum, no peer support group, and no crisis resource a young person turns to ever needs to hold their documents, their photograph or their legal name. That distinction is the difference between a safety framework a frightened teenager can use and one they will quietly avoid.

The alternatives being considered in Congress, like the Parents Over Platforms Act (POPA), are the wrong answer. POPA asks a user to state their age and then builds everything downstream on that answer. A teenager determined to get around it enters a different number, and every protection the bill promises disappears in a single keystroke.

Other proposals move in the opposite direction and push identity verification onto individual apps. Consider what that means for a teenager in an unsupportive or unsafe home. Being required to register personal identity details with every platform they open creates permanent digital footprints, heightening the risk of data exposure, security breaches and forced outing to hostile family members.

Community Voices: Congress can take a critical step to protect kids on the internet

Minnesota’s attorney general deserves credit for joining 50 others in the recent $17.1 billion settlement with Meta over how the company treated young users. That is a real step toward holding platforms accountable for the harm done to young people, but it is not enough on its own. The agreement covers two platforms, and every app our teenagers are using should be covered by the same standard, so that no young person is left behind.

Congress is reviewing multiple proposals to get there. The House has passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, and the Senate Commerce Committee has advanced the Kids Online Safety Act. Whatever their individual merits, neither can do much for young people without a reliable way to establish who is a minor in the first place. The only way these packages help kids is if they include the App Store Accountability Act. If POPA is attached instead, they will fail to keep children safe at all and will only contribute to the harm already being done.

As federal lawmakers evaluate this legislative package, they must listen to the families living this reality every day and uphold comprehensive privacy standards that safeguard young people without stripping away their lifelines.

Del Jenkins lives in Wright County and is a longtime DFL community activist. 

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