Supreme Court lets Texas enforce app store age law

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Texas to begin enforcing a law that requires app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before minors can download most apps, leaving the measure in place while a constitutional challenge continues in lower courts.

The unsigned order did not explain the court’s reasoning. It means Texas can enforce the App Store Accountability Act for now, though the decision does not determine whether the law is constitutional.

Texas enacted the law in 2025, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it, according to Al Jazeera. The measure requires app stores to verify the ages of all users and requires accounts belonging to anyone under 18 to be linked to a parent or guardian. Before a child or teenager can download an app, parents must be notified of its age rating and approve the download. The law also requires parental consent for minors to make in-app purchases, Al Jazeera reported.

Texas has said the law is aimed at protecting minors from harmful online material. In lower court filings cited by NPR, the state said legislators enacted the measure to keep minors from seeing “harmful” material. Texas Solicitor General William Peterson argued that “the modern digital world is different” from the physical world and that the law is needed because children can access “any conceivable content” online without their parents’ knowledge, Al Jazeera reported.

The law has drawn challenges from two students, the student advocacy group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include Apple and Google, Al Jazeera reported. Multiple organizations have argued that the measure violates children’s First Amendment rights by restricting access to online speech.

“No state has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet,” the Computer & Communications Industry Association wrote. “The Texas law does exactly that — for every mobile app on every mobile phone.”

NPR reported that Texas has argued the law regulates only “commercial speech,” which receives less constitutional protection. Challengers contend the law is far broader than that and conflicts with Supreme Court precedents recognizing that children have substantial free speech rights.

The statute contains only a few exceptions, including for apps made by emergency services and companies that oversee college entrance exams, according to NPR. Minors must obtain parental approval before downloading other apps, including Instagram, library apps and apps from news organizations.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman blocked the law in December. He compared it to requiring every bookstore to check customers’ ages before allowing them inside and then requiring parental permission before minors could buy a book, Al Jazeera reported. NPR reported that the lower court wrote that the law “prohibits minors from participating in the democratic exchange of views online.”

In June, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the law. The appeals court said Texas has a “substantial, if not compelling, interest in protecting children, and parents need to have the necessary information to make informed choices affecting their children’s upbringing.”

The Supreme Court’s action leaves that appeals court decision in place. The case now returns to the lower courts for further litigation.

The ruling follows a separate Supreme Court decision last year upholding a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify users’ ages. That case split the court 6-3, with the six conservative justices in the majority and the three liberal justices dissenting, Al Jazeera reported. NPR noted that the court has long treated children’s access to pornography differently from other online access questions.

Utah, Louisiana and Alabama have passed similar app store laws, according to NPR.