A new law has gone into effect in Texas that requires parental approval for children to create social media accounts.
Parts of the SCOPE Act, commonly known as House Bill 18, went into effect Sunday after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law last year.
At a committee hearing last year, Republican state Rep. Shelby Slauson cited threats that unmonitored social media use poses to children, including cyberbullying and child abuse. Fox 4.
“A Texas teenage girl was rescued from a shed in North Carolina where she had been held captive by a predator who appears to have been lured away via a chat app,” she said.
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A new law has gone into effect in Texas that requires parental approval for children to create social media accounts. (Getty Images)
But current law doesn't allow for direct warnings about these types of contacts, Fox 4 reported.
Last week, a judge blocked provisions that would have forced social media companies to filter harmful content, but allowed them to require parental consent before children can create accounts and to uphold parents' right to supervise their children's online activity.
Some social media companies argue that they already have measures in place to protect children online.
Antigone Davis, a spokesperson for Facebook's parent company Meta, told Fox 4, “We strongly agree with the underlying intent of the bill but oppose the bill as introduced.”
Parts of the SCOPE Act, commonly known as House Bill 18, went into effect Sunday. (Getty Images)
“We've developed over 30 tools to help young people have a safe and positive experience on our platform,” Davis added. “We have parental monitoring tools, time limit settings, and the ability for parents to see who their children are following.”
At the same hearing last year, representatives from Meta testified that Facebook and Instagram already have safeguards in place to protect children, and that they use AI to screen teen accounts for false birthdates entered when creating the accounts.
Meta also said it was blocking targeted advertising on a range of topics on its platform.
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Some social media companies say they already have measures in place to protect children online. (Getty Images)
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Brian Dixon, a child psychiatrist with the Texas Medical Association, spoke at the hearing about the impact social media has had on mental health in his young patients.
“Kids now have access to everything all the time and there are no filters. They have no idea when there are ads and when there aren't,” he said.
Courts have blocked similar bills passed in other states that aimed to regulate young people's access to social media.
