New Texas law takes effect requiring parental approval for children to create social media accounts

A new law has taken effect in Texas that requires parental approval for a child to create a social media account.

Parts of the SCOPE Act, or House Bill 18, went into effect on Sunday after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the legislation last year.

In a committee hearing last year, Republican state Rep. Shelby Slawson cited threats that unmonitored social media use could pose for children, including cyberbullying and child predators, according to Fox 4.

"A Texas teenager was rescued from a shed in North Carolina where she was being held by a predator who allegedly lured her away by a chat app," she said.

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However, the law in its current form would not directly flag those types of contacts, Fox 4 reported.

Last week, a judge blocked provisions that would have required social media companies to filter out harmful content. But the judge allowed the requirement for parental consent for children creating an account and the authority for parents to supervise their child's online activities.

Some social media companies have argued that there are already protections in place to protect children online.

"While we strongly agree with the underlying intent of the bill, we oppose the bill as filed," Antigone Davis, a spokesperson for Facebook parent company Meta, told Fox 4.

"We've built over 30 tools to help young people be safe and have a positive experience on our platform," Davis added. "We have parental supervision tools, set time limits, and the ability for parents to see who their child is following."

In the same hearing last year, a Meta representative testified that Facebook and Instagram already have safeguards in place to protect children and that teenagers' accounts use AI to screen for fake dates of birth being entered to create an account.

Meta also said it blocks targeted ads for a variety of topics on its platforms.

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Brian Dixon, a child psychiatrist with the Texas Medical Association, spoke at the hearing about what he has observed in his young patients regarding the impact of social media on their mental health.

"Now kids have access to all things all the time, and there is no filter. They have no perspective to when they are being advertised and when they are not," he said.

Courts have blocked similar legislation passed in other states seeking to regulate social media access for young people.