Texas state Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R) is calling for federal passage of the App Store Accountability Act following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed Texas to enforce a similar state-level law. The proposed legislation would require app stores to obtain verified parental consent before minors download apps or make purchases. The bill is currently being considered alongside other child safety measures, including the Kids Online Safety Act and the NO FAKES Act.
The Texas state legislator cited a 2024 study by the HEAT Initiative that found over 200 apps labeled as child-appropriate contained sexual content, violent material, or anonymous messaging features. Troxclair argued that current app store guidelines allow developers to self-rate apps with "infrequent sexual content" as safe for children as young as 13. She noted that teenagers now average more than seven hours of screen time daily.
In addition to Texas, three other states—Utah, Louisiana, and Alabama—have passed state versions of the App Store Accountability Act. However, Troxclair reported that companies such as Apple and Google are lobbying for an alternative federal bill known as the Parents Over Platforms Act. This competing proposal would allow developers to determine if their apps fall under the law and would rely on self-reported age verification from users.
The scale of the issue is highlighted by the 180 child advocacy organizations supporting the national App Store Accountability Act. For a typical household, the change would replace the current system of self-reported age ratings with a mandatory verification process for every new app download. Troxclair noted that app stores already possess payment and device data, suggesting that store-level verification would reduce the amount of sensitive information shared with thousands of individual third-party developers.
The legislation could set a precedent for how digital liability is handled, as the competing industry-backed bill would provide companies with broad liability protection for making a "good faith effort" to verify ages. The App Store Accountability Act is currently awaiting further action from the U.S. Senate and the White House. While the specific effective date for a federal mandate is not yet known, the Supreme Court's ruling last month has allowed Texas to proceed with its own enforcement of these standards.