The United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas’s App Store Accountability Act to take effect while lower courts continue weighing its constitutionality. The law, signed in May 2025, requires app stores and developers to use age verification tools to prevent anyone under 18 from downloading apps without parental approval. It also requires developers to assign age ratings to their apps.
A tech industry trade group had asked the Supreme Court to pause the law while a legal challenge plays out, but the Court declined to do so. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments in the case in August. The ruling doesn’t settle whether the law is constitutional — that debate continues — but it means the verification requirements can be enforced in Texas in the meantime. Parents in Texas should expect some apps to prompt for parental consent, and teens may notice increased friction when downloading new apps from the App Store or Google Play.