By Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to block a Texas law requiring app stores and developers to verify the age of mobile device users, and for minors to obtain parental consent, to download apps or make purchases, acting in a challenge on free speech grounds by a technology industry group and students.
The justices denied requests by the challengers to lift a lower court’s decision that had allowed the law to take effect while litigation continues over whether it violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects against government abridgement of free speech.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a group whose members include prominent app store operators such as Apple and Google, and a coalition of students called Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, as well as two individual students, sued to stop the Texas law.
The case brought to the nation’s highest judicial body another free speech battle over efforts by the state of Texas to protect children from online content.
The Supreme Court last year upheld a different state law that requires age verification by pornographic websites, rejecting the adult entertainment industry’s claim that the measure violated the First Amendment rights of adults. That ruling was 6-3, with the court’s six conservative justices in the majority, and three liberal justices in dissent.
Texas passed its App Store Accountability Act in 2025, imposing age verification and parental consent requirements on App Stores and developers. Under the law, accounts belonging to people under age 18 must be linked to the account of a parent or guardian. It requires that before a minor may download an app, the parent or guardian must receive notice of the app’s age rating and provide approval.
The law was signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
The measure reflects broader efforts by some U.S. states and other countries to regulate smartphone use by children and to curb the potentially harmful effects of social media. Australia in 2025 became the first country to ban social media for children under 16.
U.S. Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas granted injunctions halting the law last December, finding that it likely violates the First Amendment.
“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,” Pitman said in his ruling.
On June 4, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put Pitman’s ruling on hold.
“Texas has a substantial, if not compelling, interest in protecting children, and parents need to have the necessary information to make informed choices affecting their children’s upbringing,” the 5th Circuit wrote.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, in urging the Supreme Court to lift the 5th Circuit’s decision, said the state law illegally forces app stores to police access by users to vast amounts of online speech.
“No state has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet,” the group said in a court filing.
The Texas law “does exactly that — for every mobile app on every mobile phone,” it added.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
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