Nonprofit hits Apple with FTC complaint over harmful content for kids

FIRST ON FOX: A child safety organization asked the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to investigate Apple, alleging the tech giant has engaged in deceptive practices through its App Store that put children at risk.

The Digital Childhood Institute, a nonprofit working with a coalition of several advocacy groups, argued Apple knowingly marketed certain apps as safe for minors when they are not, failed to enforce necessary parental controls and enabled apps to collect children’s sensitive data.

The Digital Childhood Institute laid out its allegations in a complaint, obtained by Fox News Digital, that it filed with the FTC on Tuesday morning, marking the nonprofit’s first major action since it formed.

The nonprofit also accused Apple of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and of breaching a 2014 consent decree with the FTC that blocked Apple from allowing certain in-app purchases by minors.

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“For too long, families have been left powerless as tech companies have exploited vulnerable children,” the complaint read. “Apple has normalized practices that would never be tolerated in the brick-and-mortar world.”

Apple in June announced an expansion of ways it was working to “protect kids and teens online.” Some of those tools included adding additional age ratings to “give users a more granular understanding of an app’s appropriateness,” according to a press release. Another feature involved giving parents the ability to share a child users’ age range with apps so that the apps would then offer content to that user based on that range.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FTC and Apple for comment.

The nonprofit said in its complaint that a years-long pressure campaign that has included raising concerns during congressional hearings and introducing new legislation has been ineffective in eliciting change from the tech giant.

The Digital Childhood Institute said, as an example, that apps like Snapchat, TikTok and Roblox all contain easy access to mature or explicit material yet are marketed in Apple’s App Store as being suitable for anyone aged 12 and older. The App Store says X, Bluesky and Reddit are suitable for anyone aged 17 and older but do not adequately warn users of the expanse of obscene material they could encounter on the apps, the complaint stated.

Roblox has faced its own set of lawsuits alleging it is a haven for child predators, but Roblox has denied those claims, saying safety is its top priority.

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The Digital Childhood Institute alleges Apple profits from allowing greater access to these apps.

The complaint further alleged Apple lets minors enter binding terms of service agreements that permit apps to collect sensitive data from young users, such as location and photos, without parental involvement.

Apple, which reported more than $10 billion in App Store profits in 2024, has said its platform is a “safe and trusted place.” But the child safety advocates who brought the FTC complaint say the tech company’s recent safety updates are largely cosmetic and do not address deeper problems.

Digital Childhood Institute chair Melissa McKay said in a statement that submitting a complaint to the FTC was the next logical step.

“For years, advocates have fought to hold Apple accountable for its safety failures. Repeated congressional hearings, national movements, resolutions, and letters brought little change, so we had no choice but to file formal complaints and write App Store accountability legislation,” McKay said. “Apple’s decade of deception is over.”

The coalition working with the Digital Childhood Institute included the Digital Childhood Alliance, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and Protect Young Eyes, among others. Bloomberg reported in July that the Digital Childhood Alliance is receiving funding from Meta, an Apple competitor.