The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to block Texas from enforcing a state law that requires app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for minors seeking to download apps or make in-app purchases on mobile phones.
Background
Justice Samuel Alito denied petitions by plaintiffs who claim that the Texas App Store Accountability Act violates users’ constitutional rights to free speech. The law can now take effect after a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in its favor last month.
Plaintiffs, including the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, argued that the law impermissibly seeks to limit access to content protected by the First Amendment, including news and educational material.
Attorneys from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office argued that the law protects children from ‘dangerous modern products.’ They stated that a child with access to an app store and a mobile device can potentially download any number of software applications, potentially agreeing to invasions of the child’s privacy and sale of the child’s data, and be exposed to any conceivable content without parental consent or even parental knowledge.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
