The governor of Texas signed a bill on Tuesday requiring Apple and Google to verify the age of app store users, placing new burdens on the tech giants in a bid to give parents more control over the apps their children download.
Texas is the largest of 20 states that have weighed similar child safety laws for smartphones. Utah became the first state to sign a bill, in March. California and Illinois are considering similar rules.
The states have stepped in on an issue that has struggled to get traction in Washington. But this month, members of Congress reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act, which has broad bipartisan support and requires social media companies to curb harmful content that promotes suicide, eating disorders and bullying, and grants parents greater safety controls.
State age-verification laws have pitted tech giants like Apple and Meta against one another over who should be responsible for restricting children’s access to apps. Apple has argued that collecting age information would intrude on users’ privacy and has favored its being done by individual apps. But social media companies such as Meta, Snap and X have pressed for Apple and Google, which manage smartphone operating systems, to become one-stop shops where parents verify their children’s age and approve downloads.
Regulating smartphone apps has gathered momentum in statehouses after last year’s publication of the book “The Anxious Generation,” by Jonathan Haidt, a New York University business school professor who chalks up many of the challenges that teenagers face today to the rise of smartphones. Mr. Haidt has been supportive of the legislative push.
“It is absolutely vital that we develop age verification methods for life online,” Mr. Haidt said. “Parts of the internet are absolutely inappropriate for children, and Texas is pushing the companies that profit from kids to protect kids.”
Andrew Mahaleris, a press secretary in the Texas governor’s office, said Gov. Greg Abbott had signed the bill because “safety and online privacy for Texas children remains a priority.” He added, “Texas will empower parents to have more control over the online content their children can access.”
The social media companies Meta, X and Snap applauded the bill, calling it an “important step” and urging Congress to pass similar legislation.
Though Apple supports the goal of protecting children online, a spokesman, Peter Ajemian, said the company worried that Texas’ new law “threatens the privacy of all users, as it requires app marketplaces to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every Texan who wants to download an app, even if it’s an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores.”
