After 17 years in law enforcement and countless hours working to protect children from online threats, one thing has become crystal clear to me — we need a better system to help parents keep their kids safe in digital spaces.

That’s why Congress must pass federal legislation requiring age verification and parental controls at the app store level.

As the founder of Keeping Kids Safe, an organization dedicated to keeping kids protected both on and offline, I’ve seen what can go wrong. The existing system, which requires age verification on each individual platform, creates unnecessary confusion for families and dangerous opportunities for bad actors. When parents must manage different settings across multiple platforms, crucial safety measures often fall through the cracks.

We work directly with parents, schools and caregivers to provide cyber safety education and resources and unfortunately, many online platforms and apps have an approach to online safety that is ineffective. We need unified, consistent protections that work for all families.

In my prior work in law enforcement, I learned that the current approach isn’t just ineffective, it’s creating a false sense of security while leaving our children vulnerable.

App store-level verification offers a practical solution that aligns with how we protect children in the physical world. Just as we have standardized safety measures for playgrounds and schools, we need consistent protections in digital spaces. This approach would give parents a single, secure point of control over which platforms their children can access.

Through our educational programs and safety presentations across Maine, we’ve met countless parents who want to protect their children online, but struggle with the current system’s complexity. Many work long hours or multiple jobs and simply don’t have time to navigate different settings across various platforms. These parents deserve a straightforward way to keep their kids safe without having to become technical experts.

Our work has shown us how critical it is to prevent online exploitation before it happens. While we work tirelessly to identify and help rescue children who have been exploited, we know that prevention through proper safeguards is infinitely better than intervention after harm has occurred. App store verification would provide a preventive layer of protection that all families need, regardless of their technical expertise or time constraints.

App stores already have sophisticated systems in place. Now we need Congress to require them to use these capabilities to protect our children.

Our elected officials have the opportunity to implement this commonsense solution. Our children’s safety online shouldn’t depend on their parents’ technical expertise or ability to navigate countless platform settings. Federal legislation requiring app store verification would give all families the tools they need to protect their kids in today’s digital world.

The app store solution makes sense because these platforms already have the necessary technical infrastructure in place. Both Google and Apple maintain sophisticated age verification systems and family account linking capabilities through services like Family Sharing and Family Link. These existing systems could be readily adapted to implement parental approval for app downloads, providing a streamlined, secure way to protect young users.

Unlike the current patchwork of state regulations with varying age requirements and standards, a federal approach requiring app store-level verification would create the uniformity and simplicity that families need. This would eliminate the privacy risks of repeatedly sharing sensitive information across multiple platforms, while ensuring that parents retain final say over their children’s social media access.

Our children deserve better, and the technology exists to protect them more effectively. The time for Congress to act is now.