Judge blocks part of Texas law restricting minors’ internet usage

A federal judge temporarily blocked parts of a Texas law restricting minors’ internet and social media usage, as the new state policy faces multiple lawsuits.

Texas House Bill 18, named the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act, was signed into law last year. It was set to go into effect on Sept. 1, 2024.

The SCOPE Act requires a variety of digital service providers, like social media platforms, to implement new rules for users under 18. This includes limiting data collection, banning targeted advertising and prohibiting purchases without parental consent.

The law also directs digital service providers to develop a strategy to prevent minors from being exposed to content that “promotes, glorifies, or facilitates” things like suicide, substance abuse, bullying and “grooming.” The plan must include filtering technology to block such material.

In late July 2024, tech industry organizations NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association sued over freedom of expression and privacy concerns.

Federal Judge Robert Pitman temporarily blocked the “monitoring-and-filtering” portions of the SCOPE Act from going into effect on Aug. 30.

“Even accepting that Texas only wishes to prohibit the most harmful pieces of content, a state cannot pick and choose which categories of protected speech it wishes to block teenagers from discussing online,” Pitman’s ruling reads.

The rest of the law stands, including the data collection rules and age registration requirements. However, the legal battle isn’t over — and this isn’t the only lawsuit the bill faces.

In a separate case, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued on behalf of four plaintiffs: an El Paso high school senior, an Austin-based content creator and marketing company, and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas.

The student-led coalition has previously filed federal complaints, but this is its first lawsuit.

“The law deprives students of our rights online, and our digital rights are democracy,” said Cameron Samuels, executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. “Students deserve to have the agency and the rights to access public knowledge online.”

Students across the state are losing access to content via book bans and textbook removals. Samuels said the SCOPE Act will do the same thing if fully implemented.

“If we aren’t able to see the world as it is, then we’re not able to use the internet responsibly,” Samuels said. “If we can’t access resources related to suicide, related to bullying, how are we going to overcome these challenges?”

Samuels said the law is ambiguous on what counts as prohibited content, leaving the digital service providers to decide and potentially overcompensate. This aligns with Pitman’s ruling, which noted many terms in the law were undefined and this “will likely filter out far more material than needed.”

Samuels has personal experience with internet filters. As a high school student in Katy Independent School District, they discovered students couldn’t access LGBTQ+-related web content while using the school’s network, including suicide prevention organization The Trevor Project.

The SCOPE Act includes the word “grooming,” a term popularized in recent years as anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Pitman’s ruling said the law’s inclusion of “grooming” could lead to specific targeting of LGBTQ+ content. Like in Katy ISD, internet filters could block resources for LGBTQ+ youth, who already face higher risks of mental health issues, suicidal ideation and homelessness.

“When we are not creating safe spaces in school, when students don’t have them at home, then students often have no place to go except for the internet,” Samuels said. “That is now being taken away by this law.”