As we are halfway through the first day of 2026, one law that was supposed to take effect today was blocked. The Texas App Store age verification law was blocked a week ago by a federal court judge. The Texas App Store Accountability Act, also known as SB 2420, was blocked by a preliminary injunction by Judge Robert Pitman.
Pitman stated that the law “is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book.”
Lately, we have seen age verification laws combat legal battles for one thing and one thing only: how to verify.
Like in the United Kingdom, age verification has been left in the hand to third-party companies that must receive government issued ID information. This has been a sore spot for many privacy advocate groups.
Texas App Store Law is part of a bigger problem
There are various problems when politicians and parental advocates try to make laws. Also, problems when tech companies try to fight laws that prevent them from collecting user’s personal information. Politicians and parental advocates don’t understand how technology works.
California passed their own age verification which does not require personal information. You simply are required to input your date of birth, which has been used for porn sites for years.
Like issues with television and book content of the past, people want government to control access to kids instead of parents. While people complain what vaccines or religious content their kids should get in school, no one wants to monitor what their kids see.
The Texas App Store bill relieves parents of their responsibility of knowing how technology works. Many Gen-X, my age group, don’t even know how to switch their Facebook app to dark mode. Yet, they are thought to be able to handle self-checkout without making as difficult as a space shuttle launch.
Using children as PR reason works
Every time there is a situation that requires using personal information of people, they always use children as the excuse. When some adult doesn’t like a person, lifestyle, or something they don’t understand, they use children safety as an excuse to get rid of it. I don’t like this, and kids shouldn’t have to be exposed to it. In many kids view, they don’t give a damn.
Not to mention that there are some reasoning why this would backfire. Some have claimed that age verification could be a problem for apps like Netflix or YouTube, as they have different profiles. Some of which would allow more adult content. When has the government ever done anything that doesn’t cause more problems.
With the current administration in Texas and the federal government, they could immediately make an app unavailable. Especially, if they do something either the state or the government doesn’t like. We know they do that all the time.
This isn’t about protecting children. It never is. It is about a state seeking information about people who use it. Forcing you to upload personal private information just to order DoorDash or watch Disney Plus. Adults sites stopped offering content in age verification states not because they didn’t want oversight. It’s due to the fact that they would be responsible for storing and protecting your personal information.
You think that isn’t a big deal? Remember about the last time Target, Discord, Yahoo, and countless others have been hacked.