Apple will begin enforcing the Texas Age Assurance Law (SB 2420) following a recent court ruling that lifted an injunction on SB 2420. Starting June 4 (today), Apple will enforce strict age-verification and parental-consent rules for new Apple accounts created in Texas.
This move will affect children under 18 who go to download apps or attempt to make in-app purchases.
Apple previously expressed privacy concerns related to this law, but compliance is now mandatory for the company, nevertheless. Apple will use several APIs to follow the law. Principally, the Declared Age Range API will fetch the specific user age bracket (Under 13, 13-15, 16-17, or 18+) and a verification method. The Significant Change API (PermissionKit) will trigger a system dialog for parental consent if an app gets a major update or an age-rating shift.
There is also a new property type in StoreKit that allows developers to automatically check when their app’s age rating has changed on a user’s device and then use the Significant Change API to request parental consent. Finally, App Store Server Notifications can be configured to tell developers when a parent revokes consent, blocking app launches.
To ensure they are ready for these changes, developers must immediately use Apple’s sandbox testing environment to validate these APIs in their apps. For any developers out there finding this to be inconvenient, get used to it. Other regions, such as Utah, Louisiana, and Brazil, are looking at, or have implemented, similar rules.
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