The App Store Age Verification Bill (ASAA, HR 3149) And What To Do About It
Today is: December 17th, 2025
Resources: Bill PDF, Verge Article, Committee Hearing (long), GovTrack ASAA, Roll Call article about the bills advancing
This bill was introduced on May 1st, 2025, but was discussed by the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on December 2nd, 2025 and advanced to the full House Energy and Commerce Committee on a party line vote.
This bill is intended to pass with other "internet safety" bills like KOSA. They work with one another to create the possibility for a privacy and civil rights nightmare. The sponsors of this legislation are relying on the density of the text and the overwhelming number of bills to distract and demoralize people. Stay focused, don't get discouraged.
Require all "covered app store provider" (defined Section 2, Paragraph 8) meaning any app store operating at scale in the United States to " at the time an individual creates an account with the covered app store provider— (A) request age information from the individual; and (B) verify the individual’s age category using a commercially available method or process that is reasonably designed to ensure accuracy." (Section 3, Paragraph A)
Any accounts owned by minors would then need to be connected to a verified adult account. The adult account would be required to provide parental consent if the child downloaded an app or purchased anything. Consent would need to be obtained a second time in the event the app developer made any changes. (Section 3, Paragraph A)
It would also require app stores to: "provide to an app developer the ability to determine, in real time, the age category of any user" (Section 3, Paragraph A)
This would create a a privacy nightmare. While the bill specifies that the app stores must take precautions to safeguard user data, there is no guarantee this will be effective, or that the external companies or software that is used to verify age would be secure. Besides that, providing any kind of personal data to any app developer on the store (which could include literally anyone) could have the potential for disastrous consequences.
You can find your Congressional Representatives here. Focus on your federal House representatives at present, since that's where the bill has been introduced.
Resources for contacting your representatives about this bill: 5 calls, Resistbot
The bill's sponsor is Representative John James (R) of Michigan's tenth district. If you live in his district please be sure to contact him and let him know what you think of this bill.
The co-sponsors are: Gus Bilirakis (R) FL-10, Erin Houchin (R) IN-9 . If you live in either of those districts, please be sure to contact your representative to let them know what you think of their support for this bill. [US State Abbreviations List]
It's important to remember that ASAA is part of a suite of bills. In order to prevent the government from enacting internet restrictions, the bills must be opposed as a group.
My advice is to choose one bill to focus on and center your activism around that. Call, email, fax, or write your Representative repeatedly about that specific issue. It is likely the tactic these bills' sponsors are trying to use is to sneak by some of the worst things in the less prominent bills. Don't divide your attention to such an extent that you burn out; keep your focus narrow and consistent. If lots of people choose different things to focus on, we can collectively defeat these pieces of legislation.
OTHER BILLS IN THIS SET: KOSA, SCREEN, RESET (This list will be updated throughout the week)
▷ You can check the bias and credibility of the news sources in this post here, if you want.
