• by Wendy Davis , December 23, 2025

Citing the First Amendment, a federal judge in Texas has blocked enforcement of a law that would have required app stores like Google and Apple to verify users' ages and block minors under 18 from downloading apps or making in-app purchases, without parental consent.

"The Act is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book," U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman in Austin wrote Tuesday in a ruling enjoining enforcement of the Texas App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420).

"The Court finds a likelihood that, when considered on the merits, SB 2420 violates the First Amendment," he wrote.

In addition to mandating parental consent for apps, the Texas App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420), requires developers to say whether their apps are appropriate for children under 13, young teens (ages 13 -15), older teens (ages 16-17) or adults 18 and older. The statute also mandates that app developers say whether particular in-app purchases are appropriate for children, young teens, older teens or adults. 

Texas lawmakers passed the measure earlier this year and it had been slated to take effect next month.

Utah and Louisiana passed similar statutes this year, and federal lawmakers have introduced a nationwide version of the measure.

In October, the tech group Computer & Communications Industry Association and advocacy organization Students Engaged in Advancing Texas claimed in separate lawsuits that the statute violates the First Amendment.

A coalition of news organizations including The New York Times and Associated Press supported the request for an injunction, writing in a friend-of-the-court brief that the law "renders wide swaths of speech at the very heart of the First Amendment’s protection presumptively off limits to minors when accessed through apps."

The National Retail Federation and Texas Retailers Association also urged Pitman to enjoin enforcement, arguing that the statute could hinder companies' ability to sell books, movies, clothing and other goods through apps.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defended the law. He argued that minors don't have the same civil rights as adults -- such as the right to vote or, in Texas, to purchase guns without parental consent.

Paxton added that the government can regulate products that could harm minors' health.

Pitman said in the ruling that the law may have "some compelling applications," but is too broad to be constitutional.

"It is far from clear that Texas has a compelling interest in preventing minors’ access to every single category of speech restricted by SB 2420," he wrote.

For instance, he wrote, "nothing suggests Texas’s interest in preventing minors from accessing a wide variety of apps that foster protected speech (such as the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, Substack, or Sports Illustrated) is compelling."

Pitman also found that Paxton failed to "cite evidence to substantiate the assertion that downloading an app of any kind without parental permission poses a health hazard to minors."

Adam Sieff, a David Wright Tremaine attorney who represented the students, praised the ruling.

"We’re glad the court agreed with our student clients and blocked Texas’s latest attempt to censor them and regulate their households.”