RUESSELSHEIM, GERMANY – SEPTEMBER 22: Children play video games on smartphones while attending a public event on September 22, 2012 in Ruesselsheim, Germany. Smartphones, with their access to social networks, high-resolution screens, video games and internet acess, have become commonplace among children and teenagers across the globe. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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“I didn’t need a law.” That’s restaurateur extraordinaire Danny Meyer (Gramercy Park, Union Square Café, Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, etc.) from his memoirs, Setting the Table. Meyer was referencing smoking in restaurants.
While then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg banned passed a citywide smoking ban inside restaurants in 2002, Meyer did the same in 1990. It was a customer thing. Eager to achieve repeat business, he decided that cigarette smoke drifts to the dining detriment of non-smokers.
Meyer’s 35-year-old decision is something Rep. John James and Sen. Mike Lee should contemplate as they pursue passage of the App Store Accountability Act. The latter would among other things require app store operators with at least five million users to verify a user’s age during the app sign-up process. The stated aim of the legislation is to protect young people from accessing what they shouldn’t online, but for one problem: it’s not necessary.
That the legislation is superfluous can be found in the happy truth that Danny Meyer was years ahead of politicians on the matter of smoking in restaurants. The greats don’t require laws to do well by their customers precisely because the greats invariably happen upon customer improvements and protections of same well ahead of politicians.
Considering James and Lee’s legislation through present-day realities, existing software on Apple phones, tablets and watches empowers parents to limit screentime, control the nature of screentime, all the while controlling what kids can and cannot see. Not only are they unable to add apps without their parents’ permission, all incoming and outgoing images are blurred to the extent that there’s nudity.
What’s true about Apple’s products is similarly true about those of Google. With SafeSearch and FamilyLink, parents control apps and websites visited, time on devices, with any changes pin protected. This is what great companies do.
Better yet, it’s worth adding that great companies never rest on their laurels. In business, stasis is the path to obsolescence, which means lengths gone to by Apple and Google to protect the online experience of young people have no endpoint.
Consider pin protected access to technological devices. It’s no reach to say that if kids can sleuth parental passwords, they can easily work around approval barriers. Except that the latest Apple technology informs parents if their pins are being used on devices not their own. Problem solved.
To which some will understandably respond that while freely arrived at innovations are great, not all parents are equal when it comes to understanding and implementing those innovations. The good news there is that even if parents are busy or simply confused as they set up the devices for their children, most safety measures mentioned so far are automatic. In other words, the third screen that comes up for Apple users on new devices asks for the “age range” (this keeps exact birthdates private) of the user, thus immediately automating protections for young people.
Which is similarly crucial. While it’s popular to say that smartphones and other technological devices are creating a so-called “anxious generation,” the happier truth is that the universality of these devices means parents are quite a bit less anxious themselves. Not only do they provide the aforementioned protections, it’s so easy to forget that these devices provide parents with the peace of mind born of location-based alerts, including alerts for parents when their kids both arrive at school, and return home. Protection and peace of mind, with more advances on the way.
Contrast all this with James and Lee’s legislation. Talk about a look to the past. How fortunate for their customers that the great businesses are always looking ahead.