As is not unusual among folks of a certain age, it’s hard not to wonder about the effects of unfettered internet access on my impressionable younger self. Ah well, back to doomscrolling and staring into the vast content pit it is. Wait, what was I doing? Oh, yes, the news!
Earlier this week Texas governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that will require both Google and Apple’s app stores to verify the age of its users from January 1 (via Reuters). Once this law comes into effect in 2026, folks under the age of 18 throughout the state will have to get parental consent to download apps or make in-app purchases. Texas also has another bill awaiting a Senate vote that aims more specifically to restrict children’s access to social media apps, too.
Apple and Google are understandably less than keen, arguing that the blanket age verification requirements overreach and making the case it’s really only necessary for select apps. Apple issued a statement to Reuters, saying, “If enacted, app marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every Texan who wants to download an app, even if it’s an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores.”
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Still, this isn’t necessarily a done deal. Last year in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a ban on social media accounts for anyone under the age of 14. This February, a judge considered blocking the ban amid concerns it would unconstitutionally curtail free speech. As of right now, the ban stands in Florida, but a similar free speech challenge could find its way to slowing down the Texas bills.
The Apple and Alphabet-backed Chamber of Progress already has something to say on that front. The group’s vice president, Kathleen Farley, told Reuters, “A big path for challenge is that it burdens adult speech in attempting to regulate children’s speech. I would say there are arguments that this is a content-based regulation singling out digital communication.”
Utah was the first US state to pass an app store age verification bill into law back in March of this year. This followed laws directly addressing minors’ access to social media back in 2023, though obviously concerns about young people’s access to apps and social media more broadly has been bubbling the world over. For instance, last year Australia proposed a ban on social media for everyone under the age of 16 that will ultimately come into effect later this year. Tech-savvy teenagers across the land have likely already cracked a way to get around it.
As for the social media companies themselves, they’ve been surprisingly positive about these legislative developments stateside—though that’s likely out of buck-passing relief. Meta, Snap, and X issued a joint statement in response to the Utah law’s passing this year that said, “Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child’s age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way. The app store is the best place for it. We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit.”
Though I see the free speech argument, I only trust each of the big tech companies tangled up in this as far as I can throw them—to say nothing of the state of Texas pulling the ‘think of the children’ card. I’m not going to stand here and pretend I only ever had positive experiences with social media as a young’un, but it would also be remiss to not acknowledge how it opened up my world when the walls of my day-to-day looked miserably narrow. Age verification and a blanket ban would’ve protected me from some things, while also potentially reinforcing how hopeless I felt…if I didn’t bother to figure out how to sideload my apps or otherwise circumnavigate the need for age verification.
The trouble with bans, in my humble opinion, is that they often present a tough image without actually addressing the core issue. Arguably the ‘core issue’ here is not one straightforward thing—but the rollback of both content and fact-checking moderation policies by major players like Meta certainly doesn’t help. In fact, there arguably aren’t any well-moderated online spaces for young people, with even the CEO of the extremely popular Roblox saying, “Don’t let your kids be on Roblox.” The very real risks posed by social media to children aren’t going to go away simply because all the young’uns have been banned, instead likely only creating more cracks for young people to disappear down.
