Grindr supports Republican-backed age-verification bill

On Tuesday, Grindr's head of global government affairs, Joe Hack, posted on its blog that the app supports the Republican-backed App Store Accountability Act.

The act is one of a slew of online safety bills U.S. lawmakers considered this week, as reported by WIRED, including the controversial Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which critics claim would chill free speech by censoring online LGBTQ content.

The App Store Accountability Act would require age verification at the App Store level. App Store providers (like Apple and Google) would have to verify an individual's "age category" using personal data (such as an email address or Social Security number). Should a user be a minor, they'd have to obtain parental consent before downloading an app or making an in-app purchase.

The act was introduced back in May in the House by Michigan Rep. John James, and in the Senate by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, both Republicans. This year, Lee also reintroduced the Interstate Oscenity Definition Act, which would seek to redefine what falls under "obscene" material (which isn't protected by the First Amendment). Experts told Mashable the bill would basically ban porn.

But in terms of the App Store Accountability Act, Grindr's Hack wrote, "We support Rep. John James's App Store Accountability Act because it strengthens" the work the app does to keep minors off, including age gating, device-level bans, human moderation, AI tools, and partnerships with child safety organizations.

"The bill creates a single, secure age-verification process at the app-store level and allows developers to receive a verified age signal. This approach, supported by nearly 90% of parents, is safer and more consistent than requiring users to verify their age separately across many apps," Hack continued.

"By contrast, the UK and EU are moving toward fragmented rules that force adults to share sensitive personal information with thousands of apps, creating unnecessary privacy and safety risks," Hack wrote. This references the UK's Online Safety Act, which requires visitors of sites with material that's "restricted to adults" to submit personal information such as ID or a facial scan.

Recently, free speech experts and child safety experts told Mashable that device-level filtering is the preferred method of age verification, as it doesn't require these data checks every time someone wants to go on certain websites. An example is California's AB 1043, which requires operating systems to request an age or birthday during setup, and then creates a signal of a user's age bracket to send to apps (but not websites). AB 1043 takes effect in 2027.