A new state law in Texas will soon require apps to enforce a form of ‘age assurance’ with users, and in response, Apple has announced changes coming for apps available in Texas.
Texas SB2420 prompts new app requirements from Apple
Today on the Apple Developer site, the company shared the following in a new post:
Beginning January 1, 2026, a new state law in Texas — SB2420 — introduces age assurance requirements for app marketplaces and developers. While we share the goal of strengthening kids’ online safety, 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.
After the law goes into effect, Apple says any user who creates a new Apple Account will need to confirm whether they are 18 years or older.
If that new user is a minor, they will be required to join a Family Sharing group so that parents or guardians can provide consent for all purchases, download activity, and more.
In other words: new Apple Accounts for minors will be required to have explicit oversight from adults via Apple’s existing Family Sharing system.
Apple says there’s an impact on developers too. Developers “will need to adopt new capabilities and modify behavior within their apps to meet their obligations under the law.”
To assist developers in meeting their obligations in a privacy-preserving way, we’ll introduce capabilities to help them obtain users’ age categories and manage significant changes as required by Texas state law. The Declared Age Range API is available to implement now, and will be updated in the coming months to provide the required age categories for new account users in Texas. And new APIs launching later this year will enable developers, when they determine a significant change is made to their app, to invoke a system experience to allow the user to request that parental consent be re-obtained.
Top comment by Kyle A. Dupuis
Well I can see all these tech companies not wanting to tailor their apps and websites for each and every US state or country in the world, and so eventually they just roll this stuff out for everyone to "enjoy". Just like how we all get treated to the endless cookies popups on websites now because of the EU and all cars in the US are built to CA emission standards. I don't think it's unreasonable for states/countries to legislate the digital protection of underage users to a point though.
SB2420 is a Texas-specific bill, thus these changes will only be applied to users based in Texas.
However, Apple says that similar requirements will come into effect later in 2026 for users based in Utah and Louisiana based on legislation in those respective states.
Not so coincidentally, earlier this year Apple announced a handful of new family tools for child accounts arriving in iOS 26. One of those is the Declared Age Range API referenced above, which lets users share age range with apps in a privacy-protecting way that avoids needing to input actual birth date.
You can read the full details on those iOS 26 changes here.
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