Apple draws the fangs. The American technological giant opposes the implementation of a law in Texas. This asks the telephone manufacturer to verify the age of its users.
Tim Cook is personally committed to this battle. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s CEO called Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to deter it from adopting this law or at least changing it.
Change of manager
The law in question implies that companies that have application stores (such as Google Play Store or the App Store) configure devices that would control the age of users. If the user is less, he must be subject to the control of the parents. Each application that the child wants to download must be approved by the main associated account.
The measure aims to give parents more visibility in their children’s smartphones. Age verification will no longer be the responsibility of requests itself, which adapts greatly to social networks.
The House goal, owner of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, rubs his hands. Download your responsibility to ensure that its users are required to use applications, often prohibited for children under 13 in the United States. The group has campaigned for the implementation of its system since 2023.
Apple and Google counterattack
This law has something to frustrate Apple and Google. Application store managers do not necessarily want to assume what was responsibility for applications. In addition, such measures can have a deterrent effect on young people who wish to download certain applications.
That is why the two companies are not allowed to do. They say that this device would force them to collect personal data of users when using application stores. They came to launch advertising campaigns discrediting said law, claiming that it was “backed by pornographic sites”, that the defenders of the law dispute it.
Technological giants especially fear that after Texas, the law can be generalized at the country’s scale. In this sense, nine other states have initiated the establishment of a similar law. On March 5, 2025, Utah was the first state to apply this law.
This law weakens the application store that recalls another judicial decision that has been unfavorable for it. Since the beginning of May 2025, App Store applications have not been forced to go through the Apple payment system (which still took an average of 30% commission) to carry out transactions with users.
Source: BFM TV
