Congress is currently trying to sneak through a progressive proposal, called the Open App Markets Act, into an end-of-year package. The bill is based on a wrongheaded view of market competition and would represent a redefinition of antitrust away from the consumer-welfare standard. But it would also remove many of the online guardrails on which American families like mine rely.

Being a parent and grandparent can be challenging in the digital age, but technology can also make our lives easier. While we worry about young children online, we now have more tools to protect children, online and in person, than we did when my children were young. There are also more tools available to care for seniors and provide them assistance. Online health care surged during the pandemic and is here to stay. It helps improve health-care outcomes for every age group and makes keeping track of medications and services easier.

However, scams are still far too common, especially those that target seniors, and predators are constantly looking for ways to harm kids online. Thankfully, tools provided by tech companies help to block scammers. Browsers such as Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari are keen to stop users from going to websites known to scam users. These companies’ app stores are curated so that users can trust that the apps downloaded won’t expose their phones to cybercrime.

This is why a proposal like the Open App Markets Act is so harmful. The proposal would force app stores to host third-party apps that currently don’t meet their security requirements and stop app stores from removing unsecured payment systems that could risk the security of our finances.

Why should we think the government knows better than the companies who answer to their customers every day? Economist Larry Kudlow and former national-security adviser Robert O’Brien recently pointed out in the New York Post that the government mandates in the Open App Markets Act would open American tech to foreign rivals. They said it would “lead to more malign activity by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, not to mention cyber mercenaries or non-state criminal actors.”

It’s not just foreign actors who could do us harm. Right here at home, I’m concerned about those who want to target our children and grandchildren with obscene content or to exploit them. If passed, this bill would make companies lower their guardrails, allowing bad actors to work their way into app stores. It would restrict an app store’s ability to remove rule-breaking apps and, in cases of such removal, give any developer the power to take an app store to court.

The Open App Markets Act would not just affect kids and seniors. It would also require companies to publicly release their security practices, making it easier for cyber criminals to get around security firewalls. This provision could damage our safety and privacy online, especially as it concerns our most personal medical and financial information.

At the end of the day, families are best equipped to decide which tech services they’d like to use in their households. They determine which companies best meet their standards and values. Proposals like the Open App Markets Act would remove this choice and undermine their safety. Americans of all ages should not have their privacy and online security compromised by Congress.