With Gov. Abbot’s recent signing of the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE Act), Texas joins Arkansas and Utah (see our blogs here and here) in requiring age verification and parental consent before allowing minors to create accounts on social media platforms. Two key differences among these laws are (i) the SCOPE Act’s scope, which is broader than the other two state laws; and (ii) the duty imposed by the SCOPE Act to prevent harm to minors by preventing their exposure to “harmful material.”  To define “harmful material,” the SCOPE Act borrows from a different Texas law which defines it as material that “taken as a whole” (i) appeals to the prurient interest of a minor in sex, nudity, or excretion, (ii) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors, and (iii) is utterly without redeeming social value for minors.Continue Reading Texas Two-Steps into the Childrens Privacy Dance: The Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act