American tech giant Google has reaffirmed its opposition to Meta’s proposed method of age verification that would rely on app stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store.
The proposal, according to Google, raises significant privacy, practicality, and security concerns, particularly for children.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has been advocating for a Europe-wide regulatory framework mandating age verification at the operating system or app store level, claiming it would better protect teenagers from harmful online content.
The company’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, argued in February that “implementing age verification at the operating system or app store level will help ensure that we create an ecosystem that’s safe for teens.” However, Google strongly disagrees.
In a blog post published on Friday, Google criticized the plan as “ineffective” and dangerous for user privacy. The company explained that such a system would force app stores to share granular age data with millions of developers—including those whose apps don’t require such information, like flashlight apps. “We have strong concerns about the risks this ‘solution’ would pose to children,” Google wrote.
The company also highlighted a glaring loophole: even if app stores enforced age checks, children could still access content via web browsers, desktop computers, or shared devices, which would not fall under app store restrictions.
Apple has also rejected Meta’s idea. In a February statement, the iPhone maker noted that “the right place to address the dangers of age-restricted content online is the limited set of websites and apps that host that content.”
The debate unfolds as France and other EU countries push for tighter age restrictions on platforms to combat problems like addiction, cyberbullying, and exposure to explicit content. France, in particular, has enacted a law requiring porn sites to verify users’ ages, which has led to legal battles over enforcement.
While Meta argues that system-level controls offer the broadest protection, both Google and Apple maintain that individual platforms and content hosts must bear the responsibility for verifying users’ ages. Google warned that shifting this responsibility could “reengineer the protocols that have defined the decentralized web in ways that are hard to fully predict.”
Under Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) — already in effect — platforms like Meta are required to verify their users’ ages and apply targeted protections for minors, but app stores and OS providers are not legally obligated to handle that role.
What you should know
The fight over how to protect kids online is intensifying in Europe, with Meta pushing for systemic changes while Google and Apple insist on keeping content responsibility with platforms. With the EU’s Digital Services Act backing the latter approach, the tech world remains divided on the best way forward.
