“The Act imposes content-based prior restraints on speech that replace parents’ freedom to moderate their children’s access to sources for learning, communication, and creativity,” the lawsuit says.
Texas students and high schoolers are suing to block a new state law that would require residents of all ages to verify their age before making in-app purchases.
According to KERA News, the lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court. The plaintiffs include Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and two minors. Together, they argue that the App Store Accountability Act violates their First Amendment rights by restricting access to protected speech.
“The Act imposes content-based prior restraints on speech that replace parents’ freedom to moderate their children’s access to sources for learning, communication, and creativity,” the lawsuit says.
“The First Amendment does not permit the government to require teenagers to get their parents’ permission before accessing information, except in discrete categories like obscenity,” attorney Ambika Kumar of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP said in an announcement. “The Constitution also forbids restricting adults’ access to speech in the name of protecting children. This law imposes a system of prior restraint on protected expression that is presumptively unconstitutional.”
The law, which was passed near-unanimously, requires adults to verify their age before downloading applications. Children, on the other hand, cannot download applications or make in-app purchases without parental approval. Each time a child seeks their parent’s approval, the parent must again re-verify their own age.
The lawsuit raises concerns on several fronts. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say that the law could have far-reaching effects, potentially being used to restrict access to educational applications and outlets like Wikipedia and Duolingo. The mother of one plaintiff said that she believes her son “deserves and benefits from having a certain amount of privacy and autonomy, including over his digital activities. The Act would require her to intrude on [his] privacy and autonomy to a degree she would not otherwise, effectively overriding her parental decision-making.”
The Computer & Communications Industry, a Big Tech lobbying organization, has also sued over the law. In a press release, the CCIA said that the law violates the First Amendment by “imposing a sweeping age-verification, parental consent, and compelled speech regime on both app stores and app developers.” If and when applications determine that a user is likely under the age of 18, “the law prohibits them from downloading virtually all apps and software programs and from making any in-app purchases unless their parent consents and is given control over the minor’s account.”
“Minors who are unable to link their accounts with a parent’s or guardian’s, or who do not receive permission, would be prohibited from accessing app store content.”
“Our Constitution forbids this,” the lawsuit says. “None of our laws require businesses to ‘card’ people before they can enter bookstores and shopping malls. The First Amendment prohibits such oppressive laws as much in cyberspace as it does in the physical world.”
Sources
Big Tech sues Texas, says age-verification law is “broad censorship regime”
Texas teens, student group sue over new app age-verification law
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