What do Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon have in common with the consent group called Student Involved Texas (seat) that represents students? All adopt the Texas App Store reporting law, a law that requires age verification from users in the state of Texas to download apps from app stores.
Like Engadget reportsThe chair and the Computer & Computer In Association (CCIA) have filed two separate lawsuits against the state to block the law from taking effect in Texas on January 1, 2026.
CCIA has several Big Tech companies as members, including Apple, Google, Meta, Intel, Shophify, Amazon, and Uber.
The Texas App Store Accountance Act was in place signed in to the law by Texas governor Greg Abbott in May. Apple CEO TIM Cook for reporting Contacted Governor Abbott directly to try to convince him to add to the bill or change parts of it. The law requires companies that operate app stores, such as Apple and Google, to verify the age of users before downloading apps or making in-app purchases. If the user is a minor, parental consent is required before downloads or purchases are made.
App stores such as Apple’s app store already provide users with parental controls that require children to obtain permission before downloading apps or making purchases. However, those parental controls are optional, and parents must set them themselves.
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The law would not make those parental controls optional in Texas. In fact, the initiative continues and requires companies such as Apple and Google to verify all users’ ages before they are allowed to download or buy anything from the app store.
Online Age verification processes require users to provide a form of Government ID to the platform in order to use the service. As with all online age verification processes, there are concerns about user data privacy and adult fraud schemes that are under the law.
“The First Amendment does not allow the government to require young people to obtain their parents’ consent before obtaining information, except in discrete categories such as gateways,” he said Ambaka kumar, the representative of the student union chair. “The Constitution also prohibits restricting the access of adults to speech in the name of protecting children. This law imposes a system of previous restrictions on protected speech that does not correspond to him.”
The CCIA has also issued a press release regarding its case against the government over the Act.
“We support online protection for young Internet users, and that protection should not come at the cost of free speech and personal privacy,” said CCIA Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Stephanie Joy-Joyce said in a news release issued by the group.
“This Texas law violates the first amendment by preventing app stores from providing legal content, preventing users from seeing that content,” he continued, talking about their contributions in a way that pleases the state, “he continues. “That’s why we ask the court to kill this law and prevent it from being enforced while we show how much it violates the US Constitution.”
