Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) have introduced HR 8250, a bipartisan federal bill that would require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system. The legislation, titled the Parents Decide Act, was introduced on April 13 and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The title of the bill, as posted on Congress.gov, reads “To require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system, and for other purposes.” The scope language is the core innovation: by targeting operating system providers, the bill would move age verification from the app layer, where most existing legislation operates, up to the OS level where Apple iOS, Google Android, and Microsoft Windows control device-wide identity.
The published bill text directs operating system providers to collect a user’s date of birth before account setup and to surface parental controls over content and app access. Enforcement is assigned to the Federal Trade Commission, with violations treated as unfair or deceptive acts under the FTC Act. The FTC is directed to promulgate implementing regulations within 180 days of enactment. Treatment of state preemption and the specific operational parameters of the age collection flow are left to the FTC rulemaking process.
HR 8250 arrives after a year of fragmented state-level action on age verification. A federal judge blocked Texas’s SB 2420 app-store age verification law in December 2025, and state bills in Ohio, Kansas, South Dakota, Louisiana, and Utah have taken diverging paths on platform-level verification obligations. The Supreme Court also recently heard an adult-platform age verification challenge, signaling federal constitutional interest in the space.
Platform-side tooling has been building in parallel. Google rolled out its Play Age Signals API to help developers meet state-level age assurance rules, and Persona, Incode, and Veratad joined the OpenAge initiative for reusable age credentials. An OS-level verification mandate would shift part of that compliance load from developers and app stores to device platform providers directly.
Age verification technology remains politically contested. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed a state age verification bill in early April citing privacy risks from biometric and ID submission requirements. OS-level verification could reduce per-service data submission but would concentrate sensitive identity data with a small number of platform operators.
The bill has no cosponsors beyond Stefanik at introduction and no hearing has been scheduled. HR 8250 will need to clear the Energy and Commerce Committee before any floor action.
Sources: Congress.gov, GovTrack
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By Ji-seo Kim
