The Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on a legal battle over a Texas law requiring app stores to implement age verification for users and require parental permission for minors to download apps after a federal appeals court allowed the law to go into effect.
Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, a left-wing education activist group, and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a lobbying group for the technology industry, both filed emergency petitions to the Supreme Court urging it to halt enforcement of SB 2420, which imposes the requirements on app stores, alleging it is a violation of the First Amendment.
“No State has ever required its citizens to prove their age before reading a newspaper, entering a bookstore, or even accessing the internet,” the CCIA petition said. “Texas Senate Bill 2420 does exactly that — for every mobile app on every mobile phone. Under SB2420, before a Texan may download the Wall Street Journal — or even a weather app or calculator — he must first verify his age. And any Texan under 18 must link his account to a verified parent’s account (another verification hurdle) and obtain express parental consent for any app download or any in-app purchase — every audiobook, every movie, and so on — without any possibility of blanket consent.”
