Texas lawmakers believe legislation prohibits minors from entering social media
Texas will lead national restrictive legislation. Under the proposed bill, minors will be prohibited from entering social media, and platforms will also be required to introduce an age verification method. While supporters say the change will make children safer, critics believe that such legislation may be the opposite.
House, launched in November 186, will prevent minors from creating accounts on social media platforms such as Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram, etc. The platform will be required to use “public or private transaction data” to verify account holders at least 18 years of age. Additionally, parents can request that any child’s existing account be deleted. The company will have to cooperate with the request within 10 days.
By law, social media platforms are limited to public websites or applications that allow users to communicate with each other “for the primary purpose of posting information, comments, messages or images.” It does not work for email, news, or gambling.
Rep. Jared Patterson, the author of the bill, has always identified HB 186 as a mental health crisis. “I think this is the most important bill I will submit to my House colleagues at this session. After extensive research, it's clear: social media is the most harmful product our kids have legal access to in Texas.”
According to partners of age verification providers, 10 states have passed their own legislation to limit social media access to minors. Many laws revolve around restrictions that restrict access to porn, such as Texas’ existing HB 1181, which requires age verification if at least one-third of the content of the website is sexual material that is harmful to minors. ” (The law is now the center of Supreme Court cases.) But according to the Texas Tribune, Florida is the only state to impose a similar ban on minors that resembles social media. However, it only extends to people under the age of 14.
HB 186 has passed Texas homes with bipartisan support, and so far, Senate members seem to be fans. According to the Texas Tribune, Senator Adam Hinojosa, a co-sponsor, told other lawmakers during a recent State Affairs Committee hearing, “Like many parents in our state, I watched my children grow up in a world that feels increasingly unsafe, not because of where they are physically but because of where they are online, and where my wife and I cannot monitor in all times.”
Hinojosa also told lawmakers: “We have the ability and strength to act today.” “With House Bill 186, we face the evil before us and say boldly: ‘You can’t have our children.’”
Indeed, social media can also harm youth (and adults). In 2023, American surgeon Vivek Murthy warned that although the impact of social media is not fully understood, “there are sufficient indicators to show that [it] It can also cause serious harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. “After Murthy's comment, the American Psychological Association released a health consultation on social media use for adolescents.
However, strict bills like HB 186 don't necessarily solve this problem. “Young people are exposed to harmful content online won't disappear when they turn 18 at the age of 18,” said Morgan McGuire, a 17-year-old Texas resident and Tiktok creator. “The bill brings young people into a digital world where they live alone for the first time without their own support system, which can cause serious mental health hazards.”
The Age Verification Act also faces a rebound in the breach of First Amendment rights. Megan Stokes, director of national policy at the Association of Computer and Communications Industry, said in a statement: “The conflict between HB 186 and the Texas contract law undermines the right of teenagers to access information, express themselves and participate in today’s digital economy…[It] is a flawed suggestion, it is a review speech, not a support for families with tools and education. ”
Patrick Hedger, director of policy at the trade association NetChoice, noted in a letter that age verification laws in several other states have been challenged and blocked by the court, including in Arkansas, California, Mississippi, Texas, Texas and Utah. Huffing also said the legislation proposed by Texas “using parents’ decisions” that “every family has different needs. Some parents may have their children using YouTube kids for educational videos, while others may choose to have their teenagers join a hosted online community to discuss their hobbies or interests.”
“These are choices parents and guardians should have the right to make based on the needs of their children, rather than how Texas families use the internet,” Hedger continued.
Apart from the First Amendment issue, age verification bills like HB 186 are a privacy nightmare. Although the legislation says social media platforms must delete personal data for age verification, it does not explicitly state that it will not provide a social media platform under guidance on how to prove its compliance. According to Citizens, this negligence incentive platform collects “multiple forms of personally identifiable information.”
“The platform can utilize and delete a piece of 'transaction data' for age verification while collecting and retaining other personal data for legal defense,” Hedger wrote. “This means that the website needs to collect and store sensitive information, create a large number of databases, which will inevitably become the target of hackers.”
