Rep. Myron Tsosie argues Congress must end a patchwork of state rules and back the App Store Accountability Act to give parents one reliable tool.
Congress can’t treat kids’ online safety like a state-by-state patchwork.
For Rep.. Myron Tsosie. the issue is personal and urgent: Arizona’s Diné families in Chinle are living with the reality that social media is woven into daily life for young people. yet the safeguards available to parents don’t match the scale of the risk.. Tsosie says parents are being left to fend for themselves without consistent tools to manage what their children can access—an approach he argues is not good enough when the consequences for minors can be lasting.
Social media, Tsosie acknowledges, is not simply a threat in his community.. It can help students stay connected to family. information. and the broader world. and it can even support cultural continuity—sharing Diné traditions and giving kids a way to feel less isolated.. But in the same breath. he describes a parallel reality he hears from parents: worry. frustration. and confusion about how to protect children when there is no straightforward standard across states.
That patchwork problem is at the center of Tsosie’s argument to Washington.. As states write their own rules, requirements differ widely.. Some measures focus on age verification, sometimes asking companies to verify eligibility at the app level.. Others attempt to restrict certain content or pursue outright bans.. The effect. Tsosie says. is that families have to figure out which laws apply depending on where they live—something a parent should not have to do every time a child downloads an app.
Tsosie supports the App Store Accountability Act because, in his framing, it offers a simpler and more unified system.. The bill would require age to be verified at the app store level during phone setup and then rely on parental approval for app downloads afterward.. In practical terms. that shifts the responsibility for the initial check to a single. repeatable process. rather than asking families to navigate multiple different mechanisms across dozens of apps.
He also argues that keeping age verification concentrated is a privacy and security issue.. When age checks are required app by app. he says families end up handing personal information to a long list of companies. each with its own security practices and incentives.. The more places that data flows, the greater the chance something goes wrong.. By contrast. verification centered through app stores reduces how widely sensitive information must be shared. an approach Tsosie believes is more responsible.
There’s a second part of his case: not all proposals that sound like they protect kids actually deliver meaningful protection.. Tsosie points to another congressional effort—the Parents Over Platforms Act—and says it falls short because it does not include real age verification.. In his view. a system that relies on self-reported age can be gamed easily. and it passes the same unverified information to every app.. He argues that parents are asking for something stronger than a checkbox; they want control over their children’s app downloads with a system that can be trusted.
The political stakes are clear.. When Congress delays, state legislatures move first, and the result is a confusing patchwork that families experience at home.. For rural and tribal communities like Chinle. where access. resources. and time for navigating policy complexity can be limited. that confusion can translate into real harm—children exposed to risks before parents understand what tools they have.. Tsosie’s appeal is ultimately a governance argument: if the problem is national, the response should be coordinated.
For congressional leaders. the question is whether lawmakers will treat online safety as a consumer-protection issue that demands consistent rules. or whether they will continue to let states experiment in parallel.. Tsosie’s message to Arizona’s members of Congress is straightforward: listen to families. and back the App Store Accountability Act so parents can use one reliable mechanism rather than juggling competing state requirements.
Whatever the final shape of federal policy, Diné children—and families across the country—will be watching the outcome.. Tsosie frames the vote as more than legislative procedure: it’s a test of whether the nation can create tools that actually help parents protect their kids online. with clarity. trust. and control.