Apple Enforces Texas App Store Age-Assurance Law After Injunction Lifted

Apple has begun applying Texas’s app store age-assurance requirements to new Apple Accounts created in the state, after a court lifted an injunction that had blocked the measure. The requirements, set out in Texas Senate Bill 2420, took effect for new Texas accounts on June 4, 2026.

SB 2420 requires app marketplaces and developers to apply age assurance and to obtain parental or guardian consent before users under 18 can download apps, make in-app purchases, or receive significant app changes. Parents and guardians must also be able to revoke consent for apps they previously approved.

To comply, Apple is directing developers to a set of tools. The Declared Age Range API lets an app retrieve the age category associated with a Texas Apple Account, sharing a broad age band rather than a precise birth date or identity document. A Significant Change API, part of Apple’s PermissionKit framework, handles re-consent when an app changes materially, with developers determining what counts as a significant change. Apple has also added an age-rating property to StoreKit and introduced App Store Server Notifications that alert developers when a parent withdraws consent. Developers are told to validate their implementations in Apple’s sandbox environment before the rules apply to live accounts.

Enforcement follows a reversal in the courts. A federal judge had blocked the Texas law shortly before its original effective date, and the lifting of that injunction cleared the way for the rules to apply. Google has rolled out a comparable Play Age Signals API to help Android developers meet the same wave of state mandates.

Texas is one of several states shifting age verification responsibility onto app store operators. Utah became the first state to mandate age checks for app store downloads, and similar bills have advanced elsewhere, placing platforms such as Apple and Google at the center of age-assurance compliance rather than individual websites or app developers.

Apple’s approach keeps age determination on the platform and passes only an age range to developers, an architecture intended to limit how much personal data apps collect while still gating downloads and purchases for minors. The Declared Age Range API and related tools are now live for developers distributing apps to Texas users.

Sources: Apple Developer, Apple Developer Support

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team