Texas SCOPE Act - H.B.18

Summary

The bill would require digital service providers (i.e., social media companies) to implement protections and restrictions on minors’ use of their platforms. These companies operating in Texas must comply with various requirements, including:

• Registering the age of the person creating an account;
• Limiting the collection and use of a minor’s personally identifiable information and prohibiting the sharing and selling of that information (including for targeted advertising);
• Implementing a strategy to prevent the minor’s exposure to “harmful material” (i.e., content that promotes harassment, abuse, etc.) via filtering technology and content moderation;
• Disclosing how they use algorithms to provide and promote content, as well as what identifying information they use;
• Creating parental supervision tools that would allow parents to restrict and limit use of the platform;
• Preventing advertisers from targeting minors with ads that promote products that are unlawful for a minor in Texas and;
• Require providers that knowingly publish or distribute content that is “harmful or obscene” use a commercially reasonable age verification method to ensure the user is not a minor.

This bill does not apply to state agencies, small businesses, email providers, and search engines (unless they are responsible for the creation of harmful material or other content as described previously). Violation can result in civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, and allows parents and guardians of minors to file suit to obtain a declaratory judgment against a digital service provider if necessary.

Updates

April 18, 2023. Passes the House Committee on Youth Health & Safety by a vote of 5 to 1.

April 26, 2023. Passes the House by a vote of 125 to 20.

May 23, 2023. Passes the Senate with amendment by a vote of 31 to 0.

May 28, 2023. House approves amendment by a vote of 120 to 21.

June 13, 2023. Signed by the governor.

September 1, 2024. Bill goes into effect.