Apple has started checking users' ages before letting them create new accounts in Texas.
Anyone opening a new Apple Account in the state must now confirm they are at least 18. Minors who cannot clear that bar need parental consent before they can download apps, make in-app purchases, or accept significant account changes. The requirement is Apple's response to Texas legislation mandating age verification for app store access. Similar laws have passed or are pending in states across the country, and Texas is unlikely to be the last.
State-by-state compliance is messy for platforms that operate nationally, and the real question is whether Apple eventually rolls this out to all US users rather than maintain separate infrastructure per jurisdiction. What verification means in practice matters as much as whether it exists: a self-reported age confirmation satisfies some laws on paper while doing little to stop a determined teenager.
Apple is doing this because Texas law requires it. That is the right frame for evaluating how seriously to take the gate.