US Supreme Court declines to block app store age-verification law

In a brief, unsigned order with no noted dissents, the Supreme Court rejected emergency petitions from tech industry groups and students which allows Texas to immediately enforce its App Store Accountability Act while the broader legal battle continues in lower courts.

Texas passed its App Store Accountability Act in 2025, imposing age verification and parental consent requirements on App Stores and developers.

Under the law, accounts belonging to people under age 18 must be linked to the account of a parent or guardian.

The law stated that every user accessing a mobile app marketplace (like Apple's App Store or Google Play) in Texas must verify their age.

It requires that before a minor may download an app, the parent or guardian must receive notice of the app's age rating and provide ‌approval.

The law was signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott.

The plaintiffs argued the law is a massive First Amendment overreach. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state has a compelling interest in protecting minors from digital data-harvesting, privacy invasions, and unvetted content.

The justices denied requests by the challengers to lift a lower court's decision that had allowed the law to take effect while litigation continues over whether it violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which protects against government abridgement of free speech.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a group whose members include prominent app store operators such as Apple and Google, and a coalition of students called Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, as well as two individual students, sued to stop the Texas law.

U.S. Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas granted injunctions halting the law last December, finding that it likely violates the First Amendment.

That ruling was 6-3, with the court's six conservative justices in the majority, and three liberal justices in dissent.

The case brought to the nation's highest judicial body another free speech battle over efforts by the state of Texas to protect children from online content.

The measure reflects broader efforts by some U.S. states and other countries to regulate smartphone use by children and to curb the potentially harmful effects of social media.

"No state has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet," a group said in a court filing.

The Texas law "does exactly that — for every mobile app on every mobile phone," it added.

The Supreme Court last year also upheld a different state law that requires age verification by pornographic websites, rejecting the adult entertainment industry's claim that the measure violated the First Amendment rights of adults.

The move followed the pattern of Australia, which became the first country in 2025 to ban social media for children under 16.