Supreme Court lets Texas enforce app store age-check law

The US Supreme Court on Monday allowed Texas to enforce a law requiring app stores to check users’ ages and get parental approval for minors’ downloads and in-app purchases while litigation continues. The order matters for major app store operators because the challenge targets rules affecting access to mobile apps across the state.

The measure, called the App Store Accountability Act, was signed in 2025 by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. It requires accounts for users under 18 to be tied to a parent or guardian, who must receive the app’s age rating and approve a download before a minor can install it.

Texas asked the Supreme Court to keep the law in force during a constitutional challenge in lower courts. In filings cited by Al Jazeera and Reuters, Texas Solicitor General William Peterson argued that children can reach a wide range of online material without parental knowledge and that the digital environment differs from the offline world.

The challenge was filed by two students, the student advocacy group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and the Computer & Communications Industry Association. The association’s members include Apple and Google, which operate major app stores.

Free speech challenge continues

The challengers argue the Texas law violates the First Amendment by forcing app stores to verify age before users can reach online content. In a filing quoted by Al Jazeera and Reuters, the Computer & Communications Industry Association said, “No state has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet.”

The association added that the Texas measure imposes that kind of requirement “for every mobile app on every mobile phone.” Critics of the law say it reaches beyond child protection by placing an age-check gate in front of app access generally.

US District Judge Robert Pitman blocked the law in December, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. Pitman compared it to making every bookstore confirm the age of customers before entry and then requiring parental approval before minors could buy a book.

A federal appeals court took a different view in June and allowed enforcement while the case continues. The appeals court said Texas has a “substantial, if not compelling, interest in protecting children” and said parents need information to make decisions about their children’s upbringing, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.

By declining to step in, the Supreme Court left that appeals court order in place. The justices did not resolve the underlying First Amendment dispute, which remains in the lower courts.

Part of a wider push on minors online

The order follows a separate Supreme Court ruling last year upholding a Texas age-verification law for pornographic websites. In that case, the court rejected arguments from the adult entertainment industry that the law violated adults’ First Amendment rights, with the six conservative justices in the majority and the three liberal justices dissenting, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.

Al Jazeera and Reuters described the app store law as part of a broader effort in the United States and abroad to increase parental oversight of children’s online activity and reduce potential harms tied to social media. Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for users under 16, according to their report.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.