Apple Developer News, in October:

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. Apple will continue to provide parents and developers with industry-leading tools that help enhance child safety while safeguarding privacy within the constraints of the law.

Once this law goes into effect, users located in Texas who create a new Apple Account will be required to confirm whether they are 18 years or older. All new Apple Accounts for users under the age of 18 will be required to join a Family Sharing group, and parents or guardians will need to provide consent for all App Store downloads, app purchases, and transactions using Apple's In-App Purchase system by the minor. This will also impact developers, who will need to adopt new capabilities and modify behavior within their apps to meet their obligations under the law. Similar requirements will come into effect later next year in Utah and Louisiana. […]

More details, including additional technical documentation, will be released later this fall.

Apple Developer News, last week:

Today we’re releasing more details about the tools we’re making available for developers to help them meet their compliance obligations under upcoming U.S. state laws, including SB2420 in Texas. While we’re providing these tools to help developers navigate the evolving legal landscape, Apple remains concerned about the potential implications of laws like SB2420 in Texas.

The tools include the Declared Age Range API to obtain a user’s age category; a new StoreKit age rating property type to check if an app’s age rating has changed; the Significant Change API to re-obtain parental consent when the app changes “significantly”; and App Store server notifications to handle app consent revocations.

Google has a similar document and set of APIs—and expresses similar concerns—for its Play Store.

These laws claim to protect children from inappropriate content, but are actually a privacy nightmare, requiring everyone who wants to download apps to verify and share their age with Apple, Google, and app developers. This is mass surveillance under the guise of child safety—and doesn’t actually address the purported concerns that inspired the laws. It will likely cause harm to vulnerable kids by further exposing them to the capriciousness of their parents or guardians—imagine needing to obtain permission from your estranged parents to download a learn-to-code tutorial, a news app, or a period-tracker.

Notably—or perhaps, intentionally—these laws don’t apply to web apps—Meta, for example, doesn’t have to collect this information for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Threads when they’re accessed from the web, only from the apps. I suppose “child safety” is only important to them as long as it’s not their responsibility to ensure it.

Some developers may be unable or unwilling to comply with these laws. They can control the availability of their apps in 175 countries and regions, choosing whether to sell them in, say, Russia, Israel, or the EU—but cannot select individual U.S. states. It would be utterly satisfying—if wholly implausible—to see Apple add per-state controls.

Someone at Google clearly considered this option, as their page includes this FAQ:

Can I ask Google Play to block all users in a specific state from downloading my app?

We do not plan to change our approach to app releases and country targeting. However, you are free to implement your own geo-restriction solutions in your app.

I wholeheartedly endorse this option.