Texas judge blocks app store age verification law

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Texas tried to put a bouncer at the door of the app store. A federal judge just said, “Yeah, no.”

Late this week, Judge Robert Pitman hit pause on the Texas App Store Accountability Act, a law that would’ve forced mobile app stores to verify every user’s age before letting them download apps. 

The law was supposed to kick in on January 1st. Instead, it’s now sitting in legal timeout.

In his ruling, Pitman reached for a metaphor that feels instantly relatable: imagine a law requiring every bookstore to check the age of every customer at the door, and then again at checkout, just in case they might read something spicy. 

That, he suggested, is basically what Texas was asking app stores to do. While Pitman hasn’t decided whether the law is ultimately constitutional, granting a preliminary injunction signals he’s skeptical the state will win.

That skepticism matters because Texas is first in line. Similar laws have already passed in Utah and Louisiana, and Congress is eyeing its own national version. (Via: The Verge)

The idea is simple on paper: put age verification at the app store level so companies like Apple and Google would pass age signals to developers, blocking kids from age-inappropriate apps. 

Parent advocates like it. So do platforms such as Meta, along with Snap and X, which have quietly nudged lawmakers in that direction.

Not everyone’s thrilled. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), representing Apple, Google, and Meta, sued, arguing the law would create a sweeping censorship system and force teens and parents to hand over personal data just to exist online. 

A student advocacy group piled on, saying the law tramples kids’ First Amendment rights. Texas, meanwhile, insists everything here is perfectly constitutional.

Pitman didn’t buy it. Because the law touches speech, he said it deserves the highest level of constitutional scrutiny, and it fails that test. 

Texas already requires age checks for porn sites, and the judge noted most apps don’t fall into unprotected categories anyway. 

Protecting kids is important, he agreed, but the Constitution still gets a vote.

The state can appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a reputation for reviving blocked internet laws. The office of Ken Paxton hasn’t said whether it will.

Meanwhile, the tech industry is hedging its bets. 

Apple’s CEO reportedly lobbied Texas not to pass the law, Google’s backing a lighter-touch California model, and Apple has already rolled out new kid-safety features.