Overview
- Beginning January 1, 2026, people in Texas creating new Apple Accounts must declare if they are 18 or older, and those under 18 will be placed in Family Sharing with parental approval required for downloads, purchases, and in‑app transactions, including the ability for parents to revoke access.
- Apple told developers to update their apps and adopt platform tools, with the Declared Age Range API available now and slated to add Texas‑specific age categories, plus new APIs this year to trigger a system flow to re‑obtain parental consent after significant app changes.
- Apple has not specified how it will verify ages, and Texas’s SB2420 only requires a “commercially reasonable” method without defining what qualifies.
- The company reiterated privacy objections, saying SB2420 could require collecting sensitive personally identifiable information even for basic app downloads.
- Similar age‑assurance requirements will apply in Utah and Louisiana later in 2026, and Google is also preparing Play Store tools to support compliance with these state laws.