Fifteen years ago, when my family and I moved from Bloomington, Indiana, to Dayton, we struggled with a classic problem: amid scores of boxes, we couldn’t find the things we needed.

I’m an Information Systems professor with expertise in mobile technology applications, and my son is a tech enthusiast — so we teamed up to make an app that lets people quickly catalog and identify their boxes’ contents, making it much easier to unpack.

Fast-forward to 2025, and our app has been downloaded thousands of times; we’ve even partnered with a few local moving companies. It’s a labor of love, more than anything — we enjoy working together, trying out new ideas, and helping make moving less stressful for other families.

Unfortunately, a proposed Ohio bill — HB 226 — could make it harder for people to use our app, and more complicated and legally risky for us to run it. HB 226 aims to protect minors by strictly regulating how they access apps.

As a dad, I’m a strong supporter of online safety measures for kids. But the bill takes an overly broad approach that would saddle developers of completely benign apps — like mine — with costly and complex new compliance requirements.

HB 226 requires verified parental consent for every app downloaded by someone under 18, regardless of the app’s purpose — even if it’s as mundane as finding your own stuff in a cardboard box.

But forcing app stores to verify parental relationships introduces serious new obligations that small developers will struggle to fulfill.

Few minors have a government-issued ID, and there’s currently no reliable online method for confirming whether a consent-giver is actually a minor’s parent.

That means small developers like me could easily — and completely inadvertently — break the law.

HB 226 presents small Ohio developers with additional legal and logistical worries. The bill requires us to receive, handle, and secure sensitive age-related data — even if we don’t want it.

My app isn’t intended for kids, and I’ve never asked for users’ ages. But if HB 226 became law, app stores would send me that information anyway. I’d then have to manage and secure it according to federal children’s privacy laws like COPPA.

That would cost thousands of dollars, which I — and most small app developers — can’t afford. Even worse, continually moving and storing kids’ data creates new risks that it will be leaked or hacked.

HB 226 would also make it harder for people to benefit from apps’ efficiencies. For instance, teachers use our app to help keep track of boxes of school supplies, especially at the start of the school year.

If the new law were in place, they couldn’t have kids help unpack the boxes with the aid of our app unless a parent — not even the teacher — approved it.

Similarly, teachers would have to get verified parental consent before using common digital learning tools like flashcard apps, educational games, or interactive reading platforms.

Strangely, HB 226 only applies to apps downloaded through app stores, not those downloaded directly from websites or pre-installed on devices.

That means the biggest companies and most common apps — including social media apps that many parents don’t want their kids using — can pay phone manufacturers to preinstall their apps, effectively buying exemption from the law!

That giant loophole leaves kids vulnerable to many of the apps that keep parents up at night, and punishes little guys like me who are trying to follow the rules and don’t have the money to buy our way out of compliance.

Ohio needs thoughtful, balanced policies that protect children online. Unfortunately, HB 226 misses the mark.

While introducing major regulatory burdens and legal risks for small developers who build safe tools, the bill’s loopholes offer easy exemption for makers of many of the most problematic apps.

Ohio lawmakers need to go back to the drawing board — because Ohio kids and families deserve better than HB 226.

Arijit Sengupta is the founder of Dayton-based SmartRF Solutions.