Latest news with #SCOPEAct
CNET
3 days ago
- Health
- CNET
Texas Bill Would Have Banned Social Media for Minors. Here's How
Texas was poised to pass into law one of the most restrictive set of social media rules for minors, including making it illegal for those under 18 to be on social media -- and then it failed on a technicality, when the legislature ended its session ahead of a key vote. House Bill 186 would have not only prohibited minors from creating new social media accounts on services such as TikTok, Instagram and X, but it also would have required age verification for everyone else creating a new account. Under the law, parents could request a minor's social media account be deleted and the platform would be required to remove it within 10 days or face fines and lawsuits. Lawmakers who supported the bill said it would counter the mental health harm that social media poses to teens. The bill had passed the Texas House of Representatives but still needed to pass the state senate and get a signature from governor Greg Abbott. A similar law passed in Utah last year but was blocked months later by a federal judge. A legal battle over social media restrictions in Florida is also ongoing. Effects if the bill passes If passed, the bill would have gone into effect on Sept. 1 and be enforced with penalties on Jan. 1, 2026. The deadline for the legislature to pass the bill was June 2. A previous law passed in Texas in 2023, the SCOPE Act, aimed to protect kids from social media sites by restricting the type of data they can collect and what kinds of advertising or financial transactions can be shown to minors. That act has been challenged in courts and provisions of it have been blocked by decisions in district courts. University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus said that the new bill, if passed, could have faced some of the same legal hurdles as SCOPE has. "The US Supreme Court is currently considering the legality of such a law, so that will have serious impact on how Texas can enforce the SCOPE Act," Rottinghaus said. "The High Court has ruled that websites cannot be compelled to verify the age of their users, but in a political environment that emphasizes a return to parental rights, we might see the politics of this change the Court's mind." Speaking before the end of the legislative session, Rottinghaus expected social media companies would fight hard against the new rules, "but they ultimately may have no choice." In addition to efforts to restrict social media by state, there's been movement towards passing an age restriction law at the national level. "It would take a pretty heavy lift for this to become a federal law, but the political conversation about it is certainly peaking," Rottinghaus said. The Texas state legislature also was considering HB 499, which would require social-media platforms to display a warning label about mental-health risks the services pose to minors. That bill had also passed in the Texas House, but apparently also was not further acted on before the end of the session.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge blocks Texas SCOPE law keeping kids from ‘democratic exchange of views online'
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A federal judge blocked enforcement of a Texas law that he found to restrict Texas minors' First Amendment rights, calling into question Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's claims that the law protects minors from content he calls 'harmful.' PREVIOUS: Texas social media safety law faces court challenge The Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act or HB 18 requires websites like Facebook and TikTok to implement strategies to prevent a minor from accessing content that 'promotes, glorifies or facilitates' suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse, stalking, bullying, harassment, grooming, trafficking, child [sexual assault material], or other sexual abuse. Paxton suing TikTok, referencing SCOPE Act violations Western Texas District Court Judge Robert Pitman said in the order that this part of HB 18 was 'as content based as it gets,' and thus deserving of strict scrutiny. Under that standard, Paxton must show a compelling state interest in censoring the content. KXAN has reached out to Paxton for his response to the ruling. 'It is far from clear that Texas has a compelling interest in preventing minors' access to everysingle category of information listed above,' Pitman wrote. 'Many interests are not compelling, such as regulating content that might advocate for the deregulation of drugs (potentially 'promoting' 'substance abuse') or defending the morality of physician-assisted suicide (likely 'promoting' 'suicide').' He also cited the Supreme Court's opinion in the 1975 case Erznoznik v. Jacksonville, where it found that 'speech that is neither obscene as to youths nor subject to some other legitimate proscription cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them.' 'In its attempt to block children from accessing harmful content, Texas also prohibits minors from participating in the democratic exchange of views online,' Pitman wrote. 'Even accepting that Texas only wishes to prohibit the most harmful pieces of content, a state cannot pick and choose which categories of protected speech it wishes to block teenagers from discussing online.' Pitman noted that many terms used in HB 18 are 'too vague' and 'politically charged.' Specifically, he called out the terms 'promoting, glorifying, substance abuse, harassment and grooming.' The lawsuit was brought by Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on behalf of three minors who said that their access to content and ability to post about their experiences had been limited. 'This is a tremendous victory against government censorship, especially for our clients—ordinary citizens—who stood up to the State of Texas,' said Adam Sieff, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine. 'The Court enjoined every substantive provision of the SCOPE Act we challenged, granting even broader relief than its first preliminary injunction. We hope this decision will give other states pause before broadly restricting free expression online.' You can read Pitman's ruling below: Order-Granting-In-Part-and-Denying-in-Part-Plaintiffs-Motion-for-Preliminary-Injunction-Students-Engaged-in-Advancing-Texas-v.-PaxtonDownload Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas' social media law takes another hit with temporary blocks on three more provisions
A federal district court on Friday has issued more temporary blocks on provisions of a Texas law designed to restrict what kinds of materials and advertisements minors can see on social media and age verification requirements. Judge Robert Pitman enjoined several provisions of the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, also known as the SCOPE Act, calling the blocked sections 'unconstitutionally vague.' While not blocking the law in its entirety, the injunction is not the first against the SCOPE Act and goes further than previous rulings to block what the law can restrict minors from seeing on social media. The lawsuit was filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a first amendment activist group representing four plaintiffs, and Davis Wright Tremaine, a private media law firm. The groups have called the act overly broad and tailored to serve state interest, while state officials feel more oversight is needed to curtail the sometimes harmful effects of social media use on children. The background: Passed in the 2023 Legislature as House Bill 18, supporters of the SCOPE Act hoped the law would give parents more control over what their children are exposed to online and how minors' sensitive information is handled by social media companies. But a day before the law was set to go into effect, Pitman granted a temporary block of two sections of the law that regulated certain harmful content platforms could show to minors in a separate suit. The new injunction goes further, blocking the same two sections as well as three additional provisions: two that would restrict certain ads from being displayed or directed specifically toward minors, and one requiring age verification. Both injunctions are temporary and only apply until final judgments are issued for each case. 'The Court enjoined every substantive provision of the SCOPE Act we challenged, granting even broader relief than its first preliminary injunction,' Davis Wright Tremaine partner Adam Sieff said in a statement. Since the law's passing, Texas also has attempted to curtail content it deems as inappropriate and in violation of the act, and in October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued social media companies over alleged violations of the law. A section of the law cited in Paxton's suit is one of the five temporarily blocked by the injunction Friday. The injunction comes as parents are becoming increasingly concerned about social media's effects on childrens' mental health, and as legislators are weighing further restrictions on the platforms. Why FIRE sued: FIRE is a nonprofit civil liberties group that helps protect free speech rights on college campuses. The four plaintiffs the group is representing in the case range from an Austin-based advertising company to a youth group designed to teach students how to engage with policymaking. FIRE argued to the court that the SCOPE Act was a content-based statute with vague determinations that did not specify enough what content could fall under categories in the law like 'grooming.' 'States can't block adults from engaging with legal speech in the name of protecting children, nor can they keep minors from ideas that the government deems unsuitable,' FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere said in a statement. What the state says: The Texas Tribune reached out to a spokesperson with Paxton's office for comment. Paxton has already filed to appeal the decision to the 5th Circuit Court, according to online court records. Broader impact: As state legislators meet to discuss what new restrictions could be placed on social media, further blocks on the SCOPE Act could affect what lawmakers see as viable ways of regulating platforms — both in and out of Texas. Several similar pieces of legislation looking to follow the SCOPE Act are also set to be discussed in other states' legislative sessions, including Nevada's Youth Online Safety Act and South Carolina's App Store Accountability Act.
