A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against a Texas law that would have required app store operators like Apple andGoogleto verify the ages of all users. Marking a victory for tech giants, the ruling delivers a setback to lawmakers and parent groups seeking stricter controls on digital content for minors.The law has been in contention because both the hardware and OS giants have resisted becoming centralised age-verifiers. According to a report by The New York Times, Judge Robert Pitman of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that the App Store Accountability Act likely violates the First Amendment. The law made is mandatory for app stores to implement robots systems that will require users under 18 to obtain parental consent for app downloads and in-app purchases.In his decision, Judge Pitman compared the digital mandate to requiring a physical bookstore to verify a customer’s age at the front door and demanding parental consent before a minor could browse or buy a book.“It restricts access to a vast universe of speech by requiring Texans to prove their age before downloading a mobile app… and requires minors to obtain parental consent,” Pitman wrote.The Texas ruling has again highlighted the rift within the tech industry over who should be the “gatekeeper” for child safety. While Apple and Google have argued that collecting birth dates for all users would be a massive intrusion on privacy, suggesting that individual apps should handle age-gating instead, companies like Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram, have backed a “one-stop shop” approach, wherein Apple and Google verify age once at the OS level.
