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Child safety group files FTC complaint against Apple over App Store

First on the fox: The Child Safety Organization asked the Federal Trade Committee on Tuesday to investigate Apple, which claimed that the technology giant had participated in deceptive practices through the application store that endangers children.

The Digital Childhood Institute, a non -profit institution that works with an alliance of many invitation groups, has deliberately marketing some applications as safe for minors when they are not, failed to impose the necessary parents ’controls and applications that are able to collect sensitive data for children.

The Digital Childhood Institute put its allegations in a complaint, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, which I submitted to FTC on Tuesday morning, which represents the first major profit procedure since its formation.

The Apple Foundation also accused the violation of the Escue Protection law for the Internet and the violation of the 2014 approval decree with FTC, which prevented Apple from allowing some of the purchases within the application by minors.

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The iPhone application store icon appears on this illustration. (Jakub Porzycki/Nurphoto via Getty Images)

“For a very long time, the families left helpless as technology companies used vulnerable children,” the complaint stated. “Apple has normalized the practices that will not be tolerated in the brick world and mortar shells.”

Apple announced in June the expansion of the roads it was working on “protecting children and adolescents online.” Some of these tools included adding additional age classifications “to give users a more discharged understanding of the suitability of the application,” according to a press statement. Another feature includes giving parents the ability to share the age group to children’s users with applications so that applications provide content for this user based on this range.

Fox News Digital contact FTC and Apple to comment.

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In its complaint, the non -profit organization said that a year -long pressure campaign included raising concerns during congress hearings and the introduction of new legislation that was not effective in provoking change from the technology giant.

The Digital Childhood Institute said, for example, that applications like Snapchat, Tiktok and Roblox all contain easy access to mature or frank materials but are marketed in the Apple App Store as suitable for anyone between the ages of 12 years or older. The App Store says that X, Bluesky and Reddit are suitable for anyone aged 17 years and over, but they do not warn of the users of the outrageous materials that he can face on applications.

Roblox has faced a set of lawsuits that claim to be a refuge for children’s predators, but Roblox denied these claims, saying that safety is its maximum priority.

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Tim Cook holds iPhone

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, looks at the new iPhone 14 Pro during the Apple event on September 07, 2022 in Cobino, California. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Emokires / Getty Emoz)

The Apple Childhood Institute claims to allow more access to these applications.

The complaint also allows that Apple allows minors to introduce binding conditions for service agreements that allow applications to collect sensitive data from young users, such as the site and pictures, without the participation of parents.

Apple, which recorded more than $ 10 billion in the profits of the application store in 2024, said its platform is a “safe and reliable place”. But advocates of the safety of the child who submitted the complaint of the Federal Trade Committee say that the recent safety updates of the technology company are largely cosmetic and do not address deeper problems.

A child uses iPhone

In this picture, a 13 -year -old boy looks on the iPhone on May 26, 2025. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) (Matt Kardi/Getty Emocke)

Melissa Mcai, head of the Digital Childhood Institute, said in a statement that submitting a complaint to FTC was the next logical step.

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“For years, defenders fought to hold Apple accountable for safety failures. Frequent hearings in Congress, national movements, decisions, and messages have only brought a change, so we had no choice but to submit official complaints and write the legislation of the application store’s responsibility,” McCai said. “The deception contract has ended from Apple.”

The coalition, which works with the Institute of Digital Childhood, included the Digital Childhood Alliance, and the National Center for Sexual Exploitation and Small Eye Protection, among other things. Bloomberg stated in July that the digital childhood alliance is receiving funding from Meta, Apple competitor.

2025-08-19 14:09:00

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