A federal judge issued a partial block on a Texas law, HB 18, that would have required large web services to identify minors and filter their online content. Known as the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, the law was set to take effect on September 1st but faced a last-minute injunction due to concerns over online speech restrictions. The law mandates that web services, particularly social networks, limit data collection, ban targeted ads, and implement age verification methods to prevent minors from accessing harmful content, such as material promoting suicide, self-harm, or substance abuse.
Tech industry groups and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression challenged the law, arguing it infringed on freedom of expression. On August 30th, Judge Robert Pitman granted an injunction on the law’s monitoring and filtering requirements while allowing other provisions, such as data collection limits and adult content age verification, to remain in effect.
Pitman criticized the law’s vague terms like “promoting,” “glorifying,” and “grooming,” which could lead to selective enforcement and censorship, particularly against controversial content. The ruling highlighted the law’s potential to limit minors’ access to protected speech, noting that while certain books might be available online, related discussions or videos could be censored under the law.
This injunction is the latest in a series of court challenges against state-level internet regulations, joining similar blocks on laws in California, Arkansas, Ohio, and Mississippi. The battle over the SCOPE Act continues, but for now, Texas teens can still access a broad range of online content.
