Pergoss [any, any]

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Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: December 1st, 2023
  • Pergoss [any, any]@hexbear.nettotechnology@hexbear.net•On January 1st of 2026, Texans will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not.English
    1·
    7 days ago

    Update: It’s been blocked by a federal judge

    Texas Phone App Age Law Blocked Days Before Taking Effect `

    By Jared Foretek ·

    Law360 (December 23, 2025, 6:30 PM EST) – A Texas federal judge on Tuesday overturned a state law that would age-gate app downloads and require app stores to display age ratings, holding that the law failed the narrow-tailoring standard under strict scrutiny, just days before it was set to take effect.

    In his order granting a preliminary injunction Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote that strict scrutiny under the First Amendment applied because the law featured content-based restrictions by which certain apps — like emergency services, educational testing and governmental apps — would be exempted based on their content. Under the review, Judge Pitman held that the law wasn’t tailored narrowly enough, as it would restrict access to vast amounts of protected speech in forms such as news and weather apps and dictionaries.

    “Nothing suggests Texas’s interest in preventing minors from accessing a wide variety of apps that foster protected speech (such as the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, Substack, or Sports Illustrated) is compelling,” the judge wrote. “While [the law] may have some compelling applications, the categories of speech it restricts are so exceedingly overbroad that [Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton] likely cannot show a compelling state interest.”

    At the same time, the judge said that the law was also “underinclusive,” as that the content on the age-gated apps could easily be found elsewhere.

    Texas S.B. 2420 would have taken effect on Jan. 1 had Judge Pitman not granted the preliminary injunction blocking its implementation. The bill, signed into law in May, would require that app stores verify the age of their in-state users and link children’s accounts to a specified parent or guardian’s account. Children would have needed consent for each app downloaded.

    Meanwhile, app developers would have had to assign age ratings for their products and say what content led to the rating. In addition, the law would have imposed stricter restrictions on what kind of data the developers could collect from children.

    But the Computer & Communications Industry Association challenged its constitutionality in October, calling the law’s requirements a “broad censorship regime.” A youth advocacy group has also sued for an injunction blocking the law, comparing the age-verification requirements to a law requiring bookstores to age-gate books.

    “Even accepting that Texas has a compelling interest in requiring age-verification and parental permission to mitigate an overall mental- or physical-health effect of mobile phone app use — an interest which Texas has not offered evidence of at this stage — SB 2420 is not narrowly tailored to that interest,” Judge Pitman wrote Tuesday. He quoted from the Ninth Circuit’s opinion last year in a similar case challenging a California law that would have restricted how social media platforms can interact with young users, NetChoice v. Bonta : “Rather, Texas ‘could have easily employed less restrictive means to accomplish its protective goals, such as by (1) incentivizing companies to offer voluntary content filters or application blockers, [and] (2) educating children and parents on the importance of using such tools.’”

    Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to Law360’s request for comment on the injunction Tuesday.

    The Computer & Communications Industry Association is represented by Brian Willen, Lauren Gallo White and Deno Himonas of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Laura Lee Prather, Catherine L. Robb and Michael J. Lambert of Haynes Boone.

    Paxton is represented by Zachary W. Berg and Steven B. Loomis of the Office of the Attorney General of Texas.

    The case is Computer & Communications Industry Association v. Paxton, case number 1:25-cv-01660, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

    –Additional reporting by Allison Grande and Hailey Konnath. Editing by Brian Baresch.`