A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday blocked the state from enforcing a law aimed at protecting children, requiring app stores and developers to verify the age of their users. This comes as a win for Apple, Google, and other tech companies.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott had signed the Texas App Store Accountability Act earlier this year, following similar legislation in Utah. This law required app stores to verify all users’ ages and obtain parental consent before minor users download or make a purchase through an app. The bill was passed with supermajority approval by the Texas House and Senate.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin issued a preliminary injunction against the state’s App Store Accountability Act, claiming the measure likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s speech protections under the First Amendment.
READ: Apple turns to India amid tariff pressure on US iPhone manufacturing (April 9, 2025)
While Pitman acknowledged the concerns about children’s safety, he said that “however compelling the policy concerns, and however, widespread the agreement that the issue must be addressed, the court remains bound by the rule of law.”
The order was welcomed by the Washington, D.C.-based Computer & Communications Industry Association. Stephanie Joyce, who heads the group’s litigation center said that the order will “preserve the First Amendment rights of app stores, app developers, parents, and younger internet users.”
“It also protects parents’ inviolate right to use their own judgment in safeguarding their children online using the myriad tools our members provide,” she said.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association said the law would have placed “burdens on app stores, developers, minors, and parents that are completely disproportionate to any harm policymakers were attempting to remedy.”
This move comes during the time of increasing concern over children’s online safety. Earlier this month, Australia became the first country to ban social media for children under 16.
This month also saw tech companies receive warning letters from state attorney generals, asking for more protections for people, including children, from what they called “sycophantic and delusional” AI outputs. Recipients of the letter include OpenAI, Anthropic, Replika, and many others.
The letter mentioned serious concerns about “the rise in sycophantic and delusional outputs to users emanating from the generative artificial intelligence software (“GenAI”) promoted and distributed by your companies, as well as the increasingly disturbing reports of AI interactions with children that indicate a need for much stronger child-safety and operational safeguards.” It emphasized on how there needed to be immediate action to deal with the threats.