Peto quia peto or App Store Age Gates on All Ages Content

René Descartes, contemplating his own existence declared “Cogito ergo sum” – “I think, therefore I am.” And with that, he stopped questioning whether the world he experienced was piped into his mind by a demonic force and moved on with his life. The fact that he could doubt, he concluded, was foundational proof of his existence. App Store Accountability Acts have started to roll out in states like Texas and Utah (Virginia has a version that has been continued to 2027). These laws place liability on mobile App Stores and app developers to check whether the user of a device has parental permission to download and use the app. Parental permission can be granted by “a parent or guardian or the Family Organizer … always … ask the child everytime … never.” Unless you live in Texas. If you create an Apple account in Texas you will always share your age range with developers and there is no way to turn the sharing off. How do the app stores verify age? Apple checks whether a user is over 18 by requesting the user to add a credit card (not a debit card!) to their account, checking how long the user has had an Apple account, or by analyzing a picture of a user’s government issued identification card. If a user cannot pass one of these checks, they are required to attach their account to family user group in order to set up parental consent.

A quick point of clarification. Technically developers are required to ask the device for the user’s age range to confirm that a user is permitted to access the app. The app store is supposed to assign an age range to a user. This age check is in addition to optional parental checks like Apple’s Ask To Buy which allows a parent to prevent a family member from downloading or making in-app purchases without parental consent.

From one standpoint, this makes sense. Society requires proof of age for cigarettes, alcohol, and signing up for the military. You must at least look older than 17 to buy a ticket for a rated R movie. So an app deemed by its developers to contain content unsuitable for a certain age of person, one could reasonably argue, also deserves an age check in order to download it. But what about content that has been deemed suitable for all ages? Movie theaters do not need to ask for ID for patrons wishing to see movies rated G or suitable for general audiences. Cigarette vending machines are probably the closest use case we have to app store age gating. In America, the vending machines are only permitted in facilities that are age gated such as clubs and bars. The assumption there is a human can check someone’s age before they have access to the machine. Liability is placed on the people monitoring the space where adult vice is available. The App Stores are less like a bar and more like a mall. They accommodate children without welcoming them. This is apparent when looking at a breakdown of apps by content rating in the two largest app stores. Around 65% of apps on the Apple App store and 92% of app in the Google Play store are rated appropriate for the widest range of ages. The overwhelming majority of apps contain content suitable for “all ages.” Although it feels silly to type, “all ages” carries a implicit declaration; the content of this app is suitable for any user regardless of age. The rating includes the conclusion. Content that is rated for a specific age, implicitly asks a question of the user downloading it. “Are you, the user, the rated age or older?” Up until now the verification requirement has been included in an implied agreement between the person who purchased the device and the app store that the app store will only provide a rating but let anyone using the device download an app even if they do not meet the age the rating suggests. These App Store Accountability Acts attempt to make the agreement explicit. But by requiring verification on all content, the act enters a logical paradox for content rated acceptable for all ages; the app store requires verification that a user qualifies for a category that never excluded anyone.

Peta quia peto

I love the bit of Latin I know because of its ability to expose circular reasoning. “Peta quia peto” or “I ask, because I ask” feels like an appropriate way to describe the age verification dilemma faced by app developers. When the developers publish their app to a store, a circular compliance flow chart begins. The developer states the content is suitable for all ages

• All ages includes minors
• Minors are allowed to view the content
• Before a minor views the content, they must first provide proof they are in fact a minor or older
• To access the content a person of any age is allowed to access, one must first prove they are an age

If I ask, I am asking. Peta quia peto. If I am asking, I am an age that is capable of asking. If I am an age that is capable of asking, I am an age covered by “all ages”.

Liability Theater

I am self-aware enough to know the people writing the laws do not intend to push me into a philosophical quandary. That mental anguish is my doing. But because I am already tangled in cerebral knot I invite you to join me on a mild existential crisis. Verifying that you are an age forces you to reckon with the duality of your existence. You exist as an actual person with wants, skills, and personality. You also exist as an empirical person to faceless algorithms with breadcrumbs pointing to your existence – a driver’s license, a biometric face scan, a correct selection of all the bikes on a captcha test. Descartes worked to convince himself that God existed so he could stop doubting his own self and break free from the idea a demon sought to befuddle him. Considering the absurdity of how often I must prove I exist to a machine, I am surprised by how much empathy I have for him. The online world has become a place where users must continually prove they empirically exist in order to participate. PGP Keys, captcha tests, two factor authentication, and magic links all seek to confirm what I already know. I am the person I believe I am.

Self Actualization

I do not say Cogito ergo sum often. But I do say it. Usually with a tinge of irony when I experience pain or discomfort. It is a way to remind myself I am still alive, that if I can feel pain, I can feel excitement or pleasure or happiness. When I chuckle to myself I remember, before the pain, I existed. Descartes played a part in enlightenment thinking, prompting people to use logic and rationally think about the world. He also worried about demons which, seems an unenlightened way to describe the challenge of being human. Yet here I sit, wondering whether a dark force is trying to alter my sense of self. I think if I could talk with Descartes and I tried to explain how calculators made of magic rocks which flip switches so tiny you can not see them with your eye run programs that ask you a whether you are in fact who you say you are while sending a message through the air to another magic rock with a glowing screen containing a secret code which will ensure you are in fact a real person, he would only be surprised by the shape, not the existence, of the demon causing me to question myself. Online verification is more boring than Legion. Interactions with it are also more common. Clearly, requiring digital proof of age does not push many people to contemplate the nature of self. Then again, not everyone at the dawn of enlightenment thought a seeing a bird was the sinister plot of a hellish line employee working toward an office further from the brimstone. Descartes quote is familiar enough it can be difficult to appreciate. Like how hard it can be to remember the color of a couch you sat in countless times. Today I paid more attention and it is as if Rene appeared next to me. I struggled to explain what made me uncomfortable about digital age verification and how it brought troublesome questions to my mind. When the words finally came out and I finish explaining my concerns, I imagine him slowly drawing breath between his top teeth pressed against his bottom lip and with a slight smile reminding me, “Putas ergo es” – “You think, therefore you are.”