Texas teens call on SCOTUS to block app store age check 

WASHINGTON (CN) — Texas students asked the Supreme Court on Monday to press pause on a Lone Star State law requiring age verification to download mobile apps.

The coalition of students, including two teenagers identified as M.F. and Z.B., said that Texas’ App Store Accountability Act lets government officials regulate online speech under the guise of stopping children from accessing harmful content.

“M.F. and Z.B. face no barriers accessing the College Board’s app, but they need parental approval to play Fortnite, watch videos on the YouTube app, or stream music on Spotify,” Students Engaged in Advancing Texas wrote in an emergency application. “Even if studying for the SAT is for many Americans more useful and rewarding than playing video games, binge-watching videos, or streaming music*,* ‘these cultural and intellectual differences are not constitutional ones.’”

Under Texas’ App Store Accountability Act, all users would have to verify their age to access the app store. Users under 18 would also need a parent or guardian to link their account and provide consent for every app download or in-app purchase.

Students Engaged in Advancing Texas argues the law would restrict minors’ access not only to video games and streaming services, but also to news, community forums and platforms for creative expression. The organization teaches students about policymaking and civic engagement.

The group asked the Supreme Court to block an appeals court ruling allowing Texas to enforce the law, arguing it violates the First Amendment.

The students were joined by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which filed a separate emergency appeal arguing that Texas had effectively deputized app stores to police minors’ and adults’ access to vast amounts of online speech.

“Under SB2420, before a Texan may download the Wall Street Journal— or even a weather app or calculator — he must first verify his age,” the CCIA wrote. “And any Texan under 18 must link his account to a verified parent’s account (another verification hurdle) and obtain express parental consent for anyapp download or anyin-app purchase — every audiobook, every movie, and so on—without any possibility of blanket consent.”

The CCIA compared the law to requiring every business to verify the age of every patron at the door and then requiring parental consent before those under 18 could enter.

“Once inside, the parent would have to separately provide consent for every item the minor wished to buy, be it a book by Ernest Hemingway or J.K. Rowling, a Taylor Swift album, or a subscription to National Geographic,” the CCIA wrote.

States must satisfy certain requirements when regulating speech protected by the First Amendment. A lower court found Texas’ law failed strict scrutiny — the highest level of judicial review — because the state could not show a compelling interest in restricting every category of speech covered by the act or adequately connect its goals to the law’s requirements.

The lower court enjoined the law’s enforcement, but the Fifth Circuit later paused the injunction. The appeals court concluded that the law regulates commercial activity rather than speech itself, giving Texas greater latitude under the First Amendment.

The students urged the Supreme Court to block the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, noting that the justices will likely have to weigh in on age-verification and parental-consent laws sometime soon.

“This case is one of more than a dozen challenges to the constitutionality of such laws,” the students wrote. “Given their nationwide significance, the First Amendment questions this case raises ‘should be[] settled by this court.’”

The court asked Texas to respond to the applications by 4 pm on June 22.

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