There is a universal consensus among parents, teachers and legislators throughout Alabama and across this country that some of the largest digital platforms are harming our children. Many of them are sick of not doing anything about it. Lawmakers in Montgomery are rightfully prioritizing online safety, responding to the public outcry to step up and protect youth from the dangerous and addictive content that currently dominates their digital spaces. But while the goal is undisputed, the way we regulate online safety matters immensely.
Our state legislature has begun debating two competing approaches to app store age verification, HB161 and HB219. While both claim to make digital spaces online, the truth is that only one holds the platforms harming our children accountable and gives parents the ability to protect kids from their harmful algorithms.
HB161 does not achieve those goals. Instead, the bill would impose blanket age verification mandates on app stores, a “solution” backed by companies like Facebook and TikTok that would disempower parents to the benefit of Big Tech.
HB161 would sideline families and remove parents from decisions about what their children can and cannot do online. Because the bill requires age checks at the app store level, it forces a single compliance rule onto every household, regardless of a child’s maturity, needs or family values. Under such a blunt mandate, young users could be blocked from downloading widely used apps used to read the Bible, check the weather or assist with homework. The effect is to replace parental judgment with rigid requirements, cutting families out of the conversation and limiting their ability to decide what is educational, appropriate or necessary for their own children.
Since HB161 would require age checks at the app store level, it leaves other avenues that children might seek harmful, dangerous or addictive online content unprotected. Minors could easily bypass age verification safeguards by logging into social media platforms through a desktop, laptop or gaming console, which would allow companies like Facebook, TikTok and others to operate without accountability. Not coincidentally, HB161 and measures similar to it have been endorsed by leading social media companies like Facebook, which owns Instagram.
HB219 offers a path that addresses these issues. Instead of an ineffective, one-size-fits all mandate, HB219 centers parents in the safety conversation by requiring platforms to obtain parental consent before granting minors access to high-risk features. That approach reflects the reality that families are best positioned to decide what is appropriate for their children. HB219 also pulls the right actors into the accountability chain: the platforms themselves. Companies like Facebook, TikTok and others that design addictive feeds, messaging tools and recommendation algorithms would finally be responsible for the environments they create, a result that the vast majority of parents support.
Lawmakers deserve credit for stepping into the arena to fight for children. But effective governance requires precision. HB219 provides a shield that works and ensures that parents are in control of what their children interact with online. HB219 does this while offering genuine, workable protection for young people. Alabama lawmakers must choose the serious policy over the performative one.
Donna Skipper serves as president of the Republican Women of East Alabama.
