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Apple on Wednesday detailed the changes it will make to its App Store policies to comply with a Texas law requiring app stores to verify a user's age when creating an account.
The App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420), signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in August, takes effect on Jan. 1, 2026. Once in effect, accounts from those under 18 must join a Family Sharing group, and parental consent is required to download or purchase an app or make in-app purchases.
To help app developers meet these requirements, Apple is rolling out the Declared Age Range API. This framework provides developers with a way to obtain a user's age category. Later this year, Apple will introduce new APIs that let developers ask minors to get parental consent again if the app has undergone significant changes since the last approval.
Apple has never been in favor of stringent age-verification laws for its App Store. In May, CEO Tim Cook urged Gov. Abbott to veto the law. In a Wednesday statement, Apple said, "We share the goal of strengthening kids' online safety, [but] we are concerned that SB2420 impacts the privacy of users by requiring the collection of sensitive, personally identifiable information to download any app, even if a user simply wants to check the weather or sports scores."
Similar age-verification laws take effect in Utah and Louisiana on May 7, 2026, and July 1, 2026, respectively. Apple says the guardrails it implements in Texas will also be extended to users in those two states.
Google previously announced the Google Play changes it plans to implement in Texas, Utah, and Louisiana next year. It also opposed the legislation and took aim at the companies backing it. "There are a variety of fast-moving legislative proposals being pushed by Meta and other companies in an effort to offload their own responsibilities to keep kids safe to app stores," Kareem Ghanem, Google's director of public policy, wrote in a blog post in March.