Starting January 1, 2026, a new state law in Texas, SB2420, introduces age guarantee requirements for app developers and marketplaces. While we share the goal of strengthening children’s online safety, we are concerned that SB2420 would impact user privacy 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. Apple will continue to provide parents and developers with industry-leading tools that help improve child safety while safeguarding privacy within the limitations of the law.
Once this law goes into effect, users located in Texas who create a new Apple account will need to confirm whether they are 18 years or older. All new Apple accounts for users under 18 will need to join a Family sharing groupand parents or guardians must provide consent for all downloads, app purchases and App Store transactions made by the minor using Apple’s in-app purchasing system. This will also impact developers, who will need to adopt new capabilities and modify behavior within their applications to meet their obligations under the law. Similar requirements will go into effect late next year in Utah and Louisiana.
Today we are sharing details about the updates we are making and the tools we will provide to help developers meet these new requirements.
To help developers meet their obligations while preserving privacy, we will introduce capabilities to help them obtain user age categories and manage significant changes as required by Texas state law. The Declared Age Range API is available to deploy 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 allow developers, when they determine that a significant change is being made to their app, to invoke a system experience that allows the user to request parental consent again. Additionally, parents may revoke consent for a minor to continue using an application. More details, including additional technical documentation, will be released later this fall.
We know that protecting children from online threats requires constant vigilance and effort. That’s why we will continue to build industry-leading features to help developers deliver age-appropriate experiences and safeguard privacy in their apps and games, and give parents a complete set of tools to help keep your children safe online.
