\n The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Texas to enforce a law that requires mobile app stores to verify the age of users and obtain parental consent for minors attempting to install programs on their phones.\n <\/p>\n
\n Texas\u2019 law, enacted last year in response to concerns about the online safety of minors, was opposed by the computer industry and a group of students who argued that it violated the First Amendment. Other states have considered similar laws<\/a> amid a push to tighten online regulations for young people.\n <\/p>\n \n The Supreme Court sided with Texas in the emergency appeal without explanation. There were no noted dissents.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cA minor child who downloads a software application from an app store agrees to contractual terms of service, including whether the child\u2019s location will be tracked, whether the child\u2019s privacy will be protected, whether information from the child\u2019s phone can be sold by the developer, and whether the child waives the right to sue,\u201d Texas told the Supreme Court in urging the court to allow its law to take effect.\n <\/p>\n \n But the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group whose members include Apple and Google<\/a>, said the law would effectively bar young people from accessing a wide range of content, \u201cbe it a book by Ernest Hemingway or J.K. Rowling, a Taylor Swift album, or a subscription to National Geographic.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Allowing the law to take effect, the group said, would have \u201cprofound consequences for the protection of digital speech.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The Supreme Court\u2019s emergency docket decision doesn\u2019t resolve the case but rather will allow Texas to enforce the law while the litigation continues to play out.\n <\/p>\n \n The Supreme Court last summer allowed Mississippi to enforce a law<\/a> that required the nation\u2019s largest social media companies to verify the age of their users and obtain parental consent for minors. The court did not explain its reasoning in that case either, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a member of the court\u2019s conservative wing, wrote a brief concurrence asserting that the Mississippi law is \u201clikely unconstitutional\u201d but said that the internet companies who sued had not \u201csufficiently demonstrated\u201d that they would be harmed by a temporary order in favor of the state.\n <\/p>\n \n Texas\u2019 law was broader, sweeping in every app available.\n <\/p>\n \n Last year, the Supreme Court upheld a different Texas law that requires age verification for pornographic websites<\/a>. The adult entertainment industry had challenged the Texas law as violating the First Amendment because it restricted the ability of adults to access protected online speech.\n <\/p>\n