Parents Have More Control Over Teens Social Media Use, New Texas Law States

Skibidi!

If your child knows what that means, perhaps they spend too much time on social media... If that's the case, then a new Texas law may just lay the tracks that you'd like to see when it comes to social media accounts and minors in Texas.

The "SCOPE" Act in Texas

The Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act was put into effect on September 1st of this year. This means that digital service providers in Texas must comply with certain requirements from now on when it comes to children using their platforms.

Meta, Facebook's parent company, has tools that allow parents to take control of their child's Instagram or Facebook account and set usage time limits or even delete the account altogether.

The Act also outlines certain duties that each provider must adhere to, including the following:

• Duty to Register Age of User
  • The user must enter their age before signing up that cannot be changed at a later date
• Duty to Prevent Harm
  • The platform must implement strategies to prevent exposure to harmful content such as promoting self-harm, substance abuse, bullying and sexual exploitation
  • Filters must be applied by the provider to block harmful content directed to the minor
• Duty to Create Parental Tools
  • Tools for parents that allow them to monitor and set up their children's accounts. This includes the parents reviewing and deleting certain information and/or monetary transactions on the account

Tech Industry Says "No Fair!"

The original framework of this law required parental consent before a minor could even creating a social media account, so it's already gone through some revisions.

State legislators pushed back, stating that it infringes on freedom of speech if companies must filter the content they deem as "harmful", even going so far as to stating that that phrase in and of itself is too broad to be considered.

Because this is relatively new in the eyes of the law, it's unclear how infractions will be punished. $10,000 fine? Further limits? 30 minutes in time out? Only the future will tell...