The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to block Texas from enforcing a 2025 law requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for minors, keeping the measure in effect while constitutional litigation continues.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, July 6, 2026, refused to halt Texas’ App Store Accountability Act, allowing the state to enforce the law while lawsuits proceed in the lower courts.
In an unsigned order, the court declined to intervene at this stage. The Texas statute requires major app stores to verify users’ ages and, for users who are minors, to secure parental consent before the minor can download apps or make in-app purchases.
Industry plaintiffs and individual challengers argue the law violates the First Amendment by restricting minors’ access to a wide range of apps, including those that provide news, educational resources and social media. Texas has said the measure is meant to give parents more control and to reduce children’s exposure to harmful online material.
A federal district court previously blocked the law, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit paused that injunction in June 2026, clearing the way for enforcement while the appeal continues. The Supreme Court’s action does not decide whether the Texas law is constitutional; it leaves that question to the lower courts for now.
Texas is among several states that have advanced app-store-focused age-verification and parental-consent requirements, as lawmakers around the country push for broader online child-safety rules.
