Texas governor signs law to enforce age verification on Apple, Google app stores

On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law mandating that Apple and Alphabet’s Google verify the age of users on their app stores. This positions Texas, the second-most-populous U.S. state, as a key player in the ongoing debate over regulating smartphone use among children and teenagers.
Reuters:
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The law, effective on January 1, requires parental consent to download apps or make in-app purchases for users aged below 18. Utah was the first U.S. state to pass a similar law earlier this year, and U.S. lawmakers have also introduced a federal bill.
Another Texas bill, passed in the state’s House of Representatives and awaiting a Senate vote, would restrict social media apps to users over 18.
How to implement age restrictions has caused a conflict between Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, and Apple and Google, which own the two dominant U.S. app stores.
Meta, along with social media companies Snap, and X, applauded the passage of the bill.
Kathleen Farley, vice president of litigation for the Chamber of Progress, a group backed by Apple and Alphabet, said the Texas law is likely to face legal challenges on First Amendment grounds.
“A big path for challenge is that it burdens adult speech in attempting to regulate children’s speech,” Farley told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “I would say there are arguments that this is a content-based regulation singling out digital communication.”
“If enacted, app marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every Texan who wants to download an app, even if it’s an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores,” Apple said in a statement.
Google and Apple each has its own proposal that involves sharing age range data only with apps that require it, rather than all apps.

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MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote yesterday, “Apple’s fighting against the tide here. Hopefully, [via the courts] they can swim parallel to shore for a bit and find an easier way to the beach that works for everyone.”

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