New Texas Law: Minors Required To Provide Age On Social Media

While Texas was enjoying Labor Day Weekend, it's possible you might not have heard about some laws that went into effect statewide. If you didn't, here are the changes that Texas will be seeing going forward.

There are now stricter regulations for minors on social media in Texas

House Bill 18 states that anyone who is trying to create a profile on social media platforms, MUST provide their age before they are allowed to have an account. All minors must have consent from their parents before the creation of a social media account.

Parents & guardians can sign an electronic form to provide written consent and return those forms by either mail, electronic scan, telephone call, or video call. Parents can ALSO request to see any data on the profile account associated with said minor.

Of course, this is not the only law protecting children online. COPA, or the Children’s Online Protection Act, was created back in 1998 to… Well do what it says: protect children from being exposed to material and people intended to harm.

So how do parents feel about this new social media law in Texas?

As one would expect, there seem to be very split opinions about this new law.  Some parents are in favor of this, thinking this is a great way to help protect their children from being targeted by predators, while others think this is a violation of our freedoms while on the Internet.

Personally, I find myself to be leaning more toward support for this act. There are definitely sketchy people online who have bad intentions. I would think a parent would absolutely want to know what their child is doing or who they're talking to online. The last thing a parent wants is to find their children talking to a creep online or watching things that might be a little too graphic to see. Or worse...be kidnapped and found in another state.

Here's the other 2 laws that went into effect for Texas on September 1st

• Thanks to Senate Bill 1841, there are provisions made to the Texas Human Resources Code. Family violence centers MUST show that they are using a voluntary & trauma-informed advocacy service model. For example, they are providing temporary shelter & delivery services for adults & their dependents. The other big change is that anyone involved in their services, it is completely voluntary, meaning they are NOT required to be involved in any other services so they can RECIEVE shelter.
• If you enjoy hunting for mountain lions, there's a new law that's now in effect banning the act of canned mountain lions. Lions can not be kept in cages longer than 36 hours; anyone caught violating this law is a Class C misdemeanor that can result in paying a fine of up to $500.

Now you know what you can and can NOT do anymore in Texas for 2024 and onwards...

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