The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to enact an age-verification program Children’s Rights Issues

Parents must agree to download children’s apps as legal battle over Texas’ age-verification law continues.

The US Supreme Court said to be purified a move for Texas to begin enforcing a law requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before children can download apps or make in-app purchases, while the legal challenge continues.

The law, known as the App Store Accountability Act, it was signed and Republican Governor Greg Abbott in 2025. Requires app store accounts for anyone under 18 to be linked to a parent or guardian. Before a child or teenager can download any app, parents must be informed of their age and consent to the download.

Texas urged the court to allow the law to remain in effect while a constitutional challenge is pending in lower courts. Attorney General William Peterson argued that “today’s digital world is different” from the rest of the world and that the law was necessary because children can access “everything possible” online without their parents knowing.

But critics say the law goes much further than protecting children.

The challenge was brought by two students, a student advocacy group called Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include software vendors Apple and Google.

They to argue this law violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection of free speech by forcing app stores to verify the age of users before accessing the Internet.

“No government has ever required its citizens to verify their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or accessing the Internet,” the Computer & Communications Industry Association wrote. “Texas law does the same thing — for any mobile app on any phone.”

That comparison was echoed by a federal judge who blocked the law in December. US District Judge Robert Pitman said the measure is similar to requiring all bookstores to check the age of customers before entering them and ask for parental consent before children buy a book.

But in June, an appeals court allowed the law to go into effect while the legal battle continued, saying that Texas has “a strong, if not compelling, interest in protecting children, and parents should have the right information to make informed decisions about their children’s upbringing.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to intervene, leaving the appeals court decision in place.

The decision comes a year after the Supreme Court struck down a special Texas law requiring age verification for pornographic websites, rejecting arguments from major entertainment companies that the measure violated the First Amendment rights of adults. The decision split the court 6-3, with six liberal justices and three liberal justices dissenting.

The measure is part of a concerted effort in the United States and elsewhere to empower parents to monitor children’s online activities and reduce potential online harm. Last year, Australia was the first country to ban social media for those under 16 years of age.