Your 10-year-old daughter approaches you asking to download social media. Despite her pleas, you decline, telling her she’s too young. The age limit listed on the Apple App Store for most social media apps is 13.

That still doesn’t seem old enough, but you decide you won’t even consider it until she’s at least 13 years old.

“Ask me again on your 13th birthday,” you tell her.

A few months later, your daughter comes running down the stairs in tears. “What’s going on?” you ask.

Reluctantly, she tells you she downloaded Instagram without your permission and something bad has happened:

A strange man had messaged her, pretending to be a boy her age. The man coerced her into sending sexually explicit images and was now demanding money or he would publish these images online. Your heart sinks.

Confused, your mind is racing: the age limit is 13. How was she able to download it without my permission?

Unfortunately, this could happen to any parent because app stores do not currently have robust methods in place for verifying the age of users who are downloading their apps. Once they download the app, in most cases, the apps themselves do not require age verification beyond entering your birthday, which a child can easily fudge.

Sadly, Big Tech lobbyists want to put the blame on parents. A lawyer for NetChoice, arguing against app store accountability, said this:

“I just want to say that companies do a great job of protecting children online, right? There’s been a breakdown around the country involving tech and children, and that breakdown primarily has been parents.”

But we know it’s beyond overwhelming for parents to monitor the constantly changing digital landscape that their children are subjected to on a daily basis.

How can they possibly argue that the fault lies with the parents, most of whom grew up before the Internet even existed? Why shouldn’t the onus be put on the experts who have made their living developing this technology?

Introduce and pass the App Store Accountability Act!