A wave of state laws aimed at protecting kids is pushing small and medium-sized software developers into the middle a of a battle between app stores and social media giants over who is responsible for verifying user ages.
The Texas App Store Accountability Act, which takes effect Jan. 1, offers the first test. The law requires developers like
Similar laws are set to take effect in Utah in May 2026, and in Louisiana in July 2026. California has a competing version, signed this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that goes into force in 2027.
The Texas law is developers’ biggest concern for the moment, with some industry groups saying the state hasn’t provided enough time or guidance them to comply. Texas mandates that minors’ app store accounts are affiliated with a parent account, and parental consent is required for individual downloads and in-app purchases. Developers must also notify app stores of significant changes to their apps, including changes that affect data collection, age ratings, monetization or functionality.
“That’s not enough time to figure out the technical requirements for engineering teams to do what they need to do,” said Peter Chandler, executive director at Internet Works.
Internet Works, which represents small and medium-sized internet companies, wrote to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Oct. 21, asking him to delay enforcement of the law.
It has also voiced support for a federal framework to preempt states laws, like the App Store Accountability Act, introduced in Congress in May by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. John James (R-Mich.).
The Texas and Louisiana laws come with $10,000 penalties per violation; Utah set its fines at up to $2,000 per violation. Both Utah and Texas allow for individuals to sue.
Compliance Issues
Parag Shah, co-founder of hospitality technology company Vemos LLC, said the confusion created by a patchwork of state laws is costly for businesses.
“That confusion is causing a lot of rewriting of code, which is also costing us money and time,” said Shah, whose company is a member of the App Association. “It’s directly going to impact smaller developers more than larger developers.”
Trusted Future, a pro-business think tank, estimates that small businesses face a minimum of $20,000 each in compliance costs, a figure in line with Shah’s estimates of the cost to his company.
Texas requires developers to have the technical capability to receive user age information and consent status from app stores. Both Apple and Google have said they are currently working on code to share the data with developers.
“When you shift to a regime where all of a sudden these general audience sites are given direct actual knowledge that a user is under 13, they are then thrust under the COPPA compliance umbrella and subject to significant compliance risk,” said Emily Tabatabai, partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, referring to the federal privacy law that requires companies to get parental consent before collecting data from children under 13.
Companies will also be on the hook for a growing number of state laws concerning teen privacy, she added.
Adding to the confusion, app store operators will be required to classify the apps according to a content-rating system.
“An app that isn’t really designed to be used by children might, depending on the age rating, still be rated as not being an adult only app, because ‘adult-only’ designations are tied to objectionable content, not target audience,” said Duane Pozza, a partner at Wiley Rein LLP.
Google and Meta continue to duel at the statehouse level. Most recently they squared off this month in Ohio, where legislators are considering a pair of competing bills, one that would require app stores to verify ages a competing bill that would instead put that responsibility on app makers. Google argues that Meta is trying to pass the buck for age verification onto developers; Meta says that requiring app stores to verify ages will take the burden of age verification off individual apps and give parents more control.
“I think the apps that are most impacted are business apps or industry specific apps that use things like geolocation for convenience, but will find themselves with a real issue,” said Morgan Reed, president of App Association.
The App Association receives funding from Apple, which has aggressively lobbied against the app store laws.
Legal Challenge
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, which counts Google, Apple and Meta as members, last month sued in federal court to block the Texas law, citing First Amendment concerns. The court hasn’t ruled on whether the law will be enjoined prior to the enforcement date.
Barriers created by the law are “costly and burdensome” and applying content ratings for a million titles that regularly change would be impracticable,
Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Idaho, Missouri, South Carolina, New Jersey and South Dakota are all weighing potential legislation similar to Texas’s.
Chandler said the California model offered the “simplest and most workable” framework for age verification—setting clear standards without overburdening app developers or parents. The Google-supported California law doesn’t include a requirement to signal exact age or require parental consent.
“It’s a shared-responsibility model between the app store, the developer, and the parent,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it—parents have to understand one system, not a different one for every single app their child uses.”
Separately, Apple is facing heat related to its Apple Watch product in a patent infringement trial that begins arguments Tuesday.
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