Bluesky became a popular alternative to X, formerly known as Twitter, after billionaire Elon Musk purchased the latter platform in 2022.
IAN LANGSDON/AFP via Getty Images
Texas users of the microblogging platform Bluesky were given a shock on Tuesday: They’d need to verify their ages before continuing to use the site.
“You are accessing Bluesky from a region that legally requires us to verify your age before allowing you to access the app,” read the message from Bluesky upon login attempts.
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A screenshot of an age verification prompt that greeted many Bluesky users in Texas.
Screenshot
A large blue button instructed users to verify their ages. Those who didn’t want to were directed to either log out or delete their account entirely. Many Bluesky users were unable to access the age verification screen and were instead given an error. But users who did found that their options to verify their ages included putting in the last four digits of their Social Security Number, inputting a credit card number or having their driver’s license scanned.
Well i dont know how long this login session is gonna last but @bsky.app just asked me to do an age verification with personal information. If this happens again i will not attempt to log back in. If i dont post here again let bsky know that i prefer my privacy over this platform.
— Dredgen Sale 🔜 GCX 🟪⬜️⬛️ (@destinythememe.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 11:53 AM
“Bluesky dot app lemme tell you’re not important enough for me to give you my entire ssn buddy,” user Dredgen Sale wrote.
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Others joked about the app’s userbase, which skews towards liberals and older millennials. Many joined Bluesky after the 2024 presidential election and Elon Musk’s takeover of X, though its core user base has remained mostly flat since.
“Why do you need age verification on a site where everyone is 38?” one user joked.
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When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Bluesky directed Chron to a post from the company’s trust and safety team. The company said that a new Texas state law, which recently went into effect after a court allowed it to move forward, was to blame.
“Texas passed an age assurance law that requires Bluesky to verify the age of users,” Bluesky wrote in a statement. “This law was paused by a judge and then unpaused by an appeals court, so we are preparing to comply.”
Texas passed an age assurance law that requires Bluesky to verify the age of users. This law was paused by a judge and then unpaused by an appeals court, so we are preparing to comply.
If you saw an age assurance notice today, that’s why. Read about the law here: ccianet.org/news/2026/05…
— Bluesky Safety (@safety.bsky.app) June 30, 2026 at 7:00 PM
It’s been a bumpy ride for the “App Store Accountability Act”
The law, Texas Senate Bill 2420 and known as the “App Store Accountability Act,” requires companies that run app marketplaces like Google and Apple to verify all users’ ages and seek parental permission before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases. Passed last legislative session and authored by Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney), SB 2420 was blocked by a federal district judge in Austin last year after the Computer & Communication Industry Association (CCIA), a technology trade group, challenged it. SB 2420 had been slated to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
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Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, a student advocacy group, also challenged the law last year. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, an Obama appointee, called the law “unconstitutionally vague,” and “exceedingly overbroad.” But in May, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the law to go into effect, and apps and developers have begun scrambling to comply.
In their post about age verification, Bluesky linked a statement from the CCIA explaining the law. The CCIA wrote in its May statement after SB 2420 was allowed to take effect that the law “threatens the First Amendment rights of app stores, app developers, parents and younger internet users.”
On Monday and Tuesday, as age verification was rolled out on Bluesky, users of all ages were incensed. Bluesky told some users who asked about the age verification policy that it was a “known bug.” When this reporter accessed Bluesky on Wednesday morning, she was not prompted to verify her age and did not do so.
A Houston-based Bluesky user who asked only to be identified by their username, Mojo, told Chron they liked Bluesky due to its lack of algorithmic recommendations. They said they were frustrated by the rollout.
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“The policy’s an absolute nightmare, written by someone who, at best, hasn’t thought through the use cases,” Mojo told Chron.
In 2025, hackers breached instant messaging app Discord and accessed the government IDs, photos, and other sensitive information of around 70,000 users. Discord, which the Texas Attorney General’s Office is currently investigating, has begun rolling out age verification despite the leak, though the company pushed back its rollout date from March to later this year. Part of that push stems from Texas’ app store law.
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Texas’ app store law, as well as its new law requiring age verification on porn websites, is part of a broader push on the right and left to require age verification methods to use more of the internet. While proponents of the laws, many Republicans have argued that they are reigning in Big Tech and protecting kids, advocates of a more open, anonymous internet have said that such laws, now on the books in several states, intrude on user privacy and impede free speech.
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Mojo told Chron that they were concerned by data breaches stemming from other age verification rollouts like Discord’s, and that they were skeptical of Bluesky’s ability to keep their data and the data of minors safe.
“Now we’re going to be giving them more data?” Mojo said. “Not just the data of children, but also their guardians and any adult who uses an app store? For a bill that claims to be skeptical of big tech, they’re putting an awful amount of trust in it.”
They told Chron that while they hadn’t been asked to verify their age on Bluesky yet, they were unsure if they would comply to keep using the app.
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“Given my security fears, I’m sure not giving them my credit card information,” Mojo told Chron.