Texas could be the next country to make laws through social media platforms. A Texas bill that would prohibit the use of social media for anyone under the age of 18 has recently passed the Senate Committee and will vote in front of the Texas Senate. The bill must be approved by the Senate and the governor about a week before the state’s legislative session ends on June 2.
Earlier this year, the bill passed the stage for the House committee, which was later voted in favor by the state House. The bill would be incorporated into law and would force social media platforms to verify the age of any account-building, just as Texas has passed legislation requiring websites hosting porn to implement an age verification system. On top of that, Texas’s social media ban recommends getting parents to delete their children’s social media accounts, allowing the platform to comply with the requirement for 10 days, or face fines from the state attorney general.
Texas is not the only governing body that has restricted access to social media. Last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that directly prohibits anyone under the age of 14 from using social media and requires children aged 14 and 15 to obtain parental consent to establish an account or use an existing account. It is worth noting that the proposed law in Texas is much stricter than that.
The U.S. Senate has introduced a bill on a larger scale to ban social media platforms for anyone under the age of 13 on April 13, 2024. After being trapped in the committee phase, Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently posted a comment that indicated a potential second attempt.
