Texas App Store Age Verification Law Blocked by Federal Judge

Texas App Store Age Verification Law Blocked by Federal Judge

Texas App Store Age Verification Law Blocked Just Days Before 2026 Start In a last-minute legal twist, a federal judge has halted Texas’s controversial App Store age verification law just days before it was set to take effect on January 1, 2026. The ruling offers immediate relief to Apple and other tech companies, who argued the law would force them to collect sensitive personal data from every user—regardless of whether they’re downloading a game, a news app, or a weather forecast. For users wondering whether they’d need to verify their age to access the App Store next week, the answer, for now, is no. Credit: Google What the Texas App Store Accountability Act Required Signed into law earlier this year as Senate Bill 2420, the Texas App Store Accountability Act aimed to protect minors by requiring all app marketplaces—including Apple’s App Store and Google Play—to verify a user’s age during account creation. Anyone under 18 would be automatically enrolled in a Family Sharing group, givin…