AUSTIN, TX – A broad coalition of child safety advocates, policy organizations, and Texas nonprofits filed multiple amicus briefs urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reinstate Texas’ App Store Accountability Act and reverse an injunction blocking the law from taking effect.
The briefs were filed in Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton and Computer & Communications Industry Association v. Paxton.
Signed into law in 2025, Texas Senate Bill 2420 delivers common-sense truth-in-advertising, contracting fairness, and parental rights protections designed to protect Texas youth online. Supported by 79% of Texas parents, SB 2420 requires app stores to:
- Obtain parental consent before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases;
- Provide accurate age ratings that reflect the actual in-app experience; and
- Use privacy-preserving age verification based on information app stores already collect.
Digital Childhood Alliance Brief Joined by Multi-State App Store Accountability Champions
A coalition led by Digital Childhood Alliance — joined by the Alabama Policy Institute and Louisiana Family Forum — argued the district court committed multiple legal errors in blocking the law. This joint filing by vocal champions of app store accountability legislation reflects firm conviction that these laws — already on the books in Utah, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama — are content-neutral, constitutional, and urgently needed to uphold parents’ right to supervise their children’s online lives.
Their brief identifies three critical legal missteps by the district court that demand a swift reversal: applying strict scrutiny to a content-neutral law; suggesting that a more overtly content-based law would be a constitutionally superior alternative; and allowing app stores and developers to misrepresent an app’s age rating. The brief cites the Fifth Circuit’s own decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton — later affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court — as clear precedent supporting age verification and disclosure requirements in digital marketplaces.
“The Fifth Circuit has before it a straightforward question: do Texas parents have the right to know what apps their children are downloading and what contracts they are agreeing to — or can Apple and Google continue to sideline parents and act as the gatekeepers to our kids’ digital lives?” said Casey Stefanski, Executive Director of the Digital Childhood Alliance. “We are confident the Fifth Circuit will see through Big Tech’s First Amendment smokescreen and recognize that SB 2420 regulates contracts, not speech.”
Texas Youth Safety Groups Warn of Real-World Harm
A separate brief was filed by a coalition of Texas-based youth safety nonprofits, including David’s Legacy Foundation, Not on Our Watch Texas, Texas Youth Summit, Children At Risk, Unbound Now Texas, and Unbound Now Louisiana. These organizations bring firsthand experience working with Texas families affected by the harms that can flow from unfettered app access — including predatory contact, exploitation, and the well-documented mental health consequences of unregulated smartphone and app use among minors.
“We work every day with Texas families who have been blindsided by what their children were accessing on their phones — apps that were rated safe but were anything but,” said LisaBeth Thomas, Co-Founder of Not on Our Watch Texas. “SB 2420 would change that. The Fifth Circuit has the opportunity to give Texas parents what they’ve been asking for: the tools to effectively parent and protect their kids online. We are hopeful the court will do the right thing.”
Additional Amicus Briefs Filed in Support of SB 2420
Additional amicus briefs supporting the law were filed by technology policy and legal scholars Joel Thayer and Meg Leta Jones, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the Institute for Family Studies, and the Digital Childhood Institute alongside Protect Young Eyes.
“SB 2420 is not a speech regulation — it is a consumer protection and contracting law,” said Joel Thayer. “Parents deserve to be involved before minors enter into agreements with some of the most powerful corporations in the world. The First Amendment does not prevent states from protecting families in the digital marketplace.”
Momentum Builds Against Big Tech Resistance
Supporters of SB 2420 also pointed to mounting national momentum behind app store accountability laws — including a major setback earlier this year for the same tech industry groups now challenging Texas’ law.
In April, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) — which represents companies including Apple, Google, and Meta — voluntarily dismissed a nearly identical lawsuit challenging Utah’s App Store Accountability Act after Utah lawmakers preserved the law’s core protections for minors and parents.
Advocates say the Utah outcome exposed the industry’s broader legal strategy: delay enforcement for as long as possible while fighting state-by-state efforts to impose basic safeguards for children online.
“The tech industry wants these cases tied up in court because they have the resources to delay accountability indefinitely,” said Casey Stefanski, Executive Director of the Digital Childhood Alliance. “But the momentum is clearly shifting. States across the country are standing up to Big Tech and demanding that parents have a real voice in their children’s digital lives.”
Utah, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas have all enacted app store accountability measures in recent years, signaling growing bipartisan support for requiring parental consent, age verification, and greater transparency in digital marketplaces involving minors.
You can read the Digital Childhood Alliance’s amicus brief HERE.
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