Law / United States / 
Alabama
HB161, App Store Accountability Act
Act 2026-59 (HB161); Code of Alabama, Title 8
An app store age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Age threshold
- 18
- Covered services
- Mobile application marketplace (app store) providers and developers.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- User location
- Verification methods
- Digital ID, Device signal, Parental consent
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- As an app store provider, request and verify a user's age category (under 13, 13-15, 16-17, or 18 and older) at account creation.
- Obtain verifiable parental consent before a minor may download an app or make purchases.
- Categorize and verify accounts in existence on before .
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalties
Knowing or reckless violations are deceptive trade practices under Chapter 19 of Title 8; the Attorney General has exclusive jurisdiction to bring an action and may collect a civil penalty of up to $7,500 per violation.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Alabama Attorney General (exclusive)
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does the requirement in Section 2(b) of 'affirmative age attestation by an individual who is reasonably believed to be the parent or legal guardian of the minor' apply to an account holder who is an adult, and if it does not, what makes a method 'commercially available' for an adult account?
- Once the Attorney General adopts the rules that Section 10 requires, may an app store provider keep relying on a 'commercially available' method under Section 2(a)(2)a., or must it use a system that complies with those rules under Section 2(a)(2)b.?
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Counterparty
What the log must hold
Age assurance result, Consent or opt-out state
Log retention
Section 6 limits collection and processing to those three purposes and sets no retention period.
- As of
- Basis
- Purpose bound
- Prohibits retaining
- Personal age verification data beyond what is necessary to verify a user's age, obtain parental consent or maintain compliance records
Logging duty
No section orders the app store provider to keep a log. Section 6 limits the collection and processing of personal age verification data to what is needed to verify age, obtain parental consent or maintain compliance records, and Section 12(d) lets a provider that generated an erroneous age category signal escape liability only if it demonstrates a commercially reasonable verification process, which cannot be shown without a record.
- Kind
- Implicit
- As of
- Provision
- HB161 Section 6(1)
- Trigger
- age_assurance
What this law does
Requires app store providers to request and verify a user's age category (under 13, 13-15, 16-17, or 18 and older) at account creation, and to obtain verifiable parental consent before a minor may download an app or make purchases. Accounts in existence on must be categorized and verified before . The House passed the bill on , the Senate amended and passed it on , and the House concurred in the Senate amendment on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates an app store.
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