The “Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment” Act initially passed the Texas House of Representatives. This would require social media and other digital companies to require parental consent before allowing access to minors (anyone under 18).

Under the bill, digital providers such as social media companies and other digital-based platforms must have parental consent before entering into a contract that includes a user agreement, a terms and services agreement, or the creation of an account if it is a minor under 18 years old. 

According to the bill, “A digital service provider may enter into an agreement with a known minor if the known minor’s parent or guardian consents in a verifiable manner that: is specific, informed, and unambiguous; and occurs in the absence of any financial incentive.”

The bill states this can be done through forms, toll-free numbers, and video calls. The bill would require digital companies to collect information from the parent or guardian to confirm their identity, which would be deleted immediately after confirmation. Or the parent can list themselves as the parent of the account with their digital provider.

Under the bill, parents must be given the ability to enable the highest privacy settings and prevent the digital company from collecting, processing, and sharing data that is not related to the original purpose the data was collected. Parents must also be allowed to prevent geolocating by the digital company, prevent the display of targeted advertising, and prevent the minor from making financial transactions or purchases.

This bill does not prevent the digital service provider from providing data to law enforcement, civil and criminal courts, subpoenas, or summons. If given consent, digital providers must do what they can to prevent suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse or addiction, bullying, harassment, and sexual exploitation including grooming, trafficking, and child pornography. This includes barring advertisers of tobacco, drugs, gambling, alcohol, pornography, and predatory and unfair marketing practices to minors.

A digital service provider that allows ads to minors must disclose to parents when the ad will display and the name of the ad, product, company, the subject matter of the advertisement, the reason why it is targeted to minors, and the way a child’s data leads to that advertisement.

This law does not apply to digital service providers that are state agencies, financial institutions, universities, businesses and entities that are under the rules of the United States Health and Human Services Department, or employers. The bill does not seem to bar minors from accessing the internet or applying online to the above institutions. The goal of the bill is to curb the negative impacts of social media on teenagers.