Law / United States / 
Texas
HB 18 (2023), Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
Enjoined: enforcement paused by a court, effective 1 September 2024.
A social media and minors rule binding private bodies.
As of 15 July 2026.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Requires digital service providers to determine whether a Texas account holder is a known minor based on self reported age at registration, obtain parental consent for certain data uses, and restrict targeted advertising, data sharing, and specified design features for known minors. Federal courts have enjoined the law's core provisions statewide, including its monitoring and filtering, targeted advertising, and age verification requirements, while Texas appeals.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Texas Attorney General
Litigation
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, on appeal to the Fifth Circuit
- Docket
- Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice v. Paxton, No. 1:24-cv-00849 (W.D. Tex.), and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton (W.D. Tex.); consolidated appeals Nos. 24-50721 and 25-50096 (5th Cir.)
- Posture
- The district court preliminarily enjoined the monitoring and filtering provisions on August 30, 2024 in the CCIA and NetChoice case, and on February 7, 2025 enjoined additional provisions, including targeted advertising restrictions and the age verification and content monitoring requirement, in the companion Students Engaged in Advancing Texas case, holding them facially invalid under strict scrutiny. Texas's consolidated appeals were briefed in 2025 and remain pending before the Fifth Circuit as of this date.
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Digital service providers whose services are used, or reasonably anticipated to be used, by a known minor in Texas.
Verification methods
Self declaration, Parental consent
When LexLint raises it
operates_social_platform
Read the law
official Texas Business and Commerce Code statute text
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.