Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has stated in a hearing held in the United States Congress and has once again rejected the idea that social media companies should be responsible for managing parental control systems for the use of apps like Facebook and Instagram by minors. Trying to shift the blame, the executive suggested that the problem should be solved by app store providers, such as Apple and Google.
This is not the first time that Meta raises this idea. As TechCrunch reports, the company presented a proposal last November in which it argued that Apple and Google should do more to strengthen the safety of minors, requiring parental approval when users between the ages of 13 and 15 download certain applications.
At that time, Meta’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, said that this would be the “best way” to support both parents and children, and that the solution should be applied “across the board”, where “all apps are governed by the same consistent standard”.
In the hearing that took place this week, Zuckerberg suggested that Meta‘s own investigation indicated that parents wanted more control over apps through mobile devices and app stores that families use.
“I don’t think parents should have to upload an identification document to prove that they are the parents of a child in each of the applications their children use,” said the CEO, presenting a proposal that would eliminate the need to upload legal documents, which would be an improvement in user privacy.
“As far as I understand, Apple and Google already require, or at least Apple already requires, parental consent when a child makes a purchase within an app,” Zuckerberg said, referring to Apple’s requirement for apps on its platform to use their own payment methods. “So it should be fairly straightforward to pass a law that requires them to ensure parents have control every time a child downloads an app and gives consent for it.”
