Judge Rules Social Media Companies Aren’t Obligated to Block ‘Harmful’ Content for Teens

A federal judge has ruled that social media companies can’t be forced to block certain types of “harmful” content from teens.

On Sunday, the SCOPE Act went into effect in the state of Texas on Sunday in a bid to crack down on how teenagers use social media in the state.

The bill was passed last year and stands for “Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment.”

The SCOPE ACT was created to give parents more power over their children’s digital footprint and require parental consent for teens to create a social media account. Under the new law, parents in Texas must approve all social media accounts for their underage children.

The SCOPE Act also requires a range of web services, particularly large social networks, to apply special rules to users whose registered age is under 18. That includes limiting data collection, banning targeted advertising, and not allowing financial transactions without parental consent.

However, on Friday, federal judge Robert Pitman blocked part of the law that would have forced social media companies to filter out harmful content.

While Pitman did leave the requirement for parental consent for children creating an account and the power to supervise their online activities, he said that forcing companies to block certain politically charged terms, such as “grooming,” is too vague.

The federal judge issued a last-minute partial block on the Texas law that would require some large web services to identify minors and filter what they see online. The ruling determined that the “monitoring and filtering” requirements posed a significant threat to online speech.

According to The Verge, Pitman points out that while social media companies would have to filter out controversial material, the same rules wouldn’t apply to other media.

“A teenager can read Peter Singer advocate for physician-assisted suicide in Practical Ethics on Google Books but cannot watch his lectures on YouTube or potentially even review the same book on Goodreads,” Pitman writes.

“In its attempt to block children from accessing harmful content, Texas also prohibits minors from participating in the democratic exchange of views online.

“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.”

While the judge blocked some parts of the SCOPE ACT law, some aspects are now in effect in Texas. While companies aren’t required to monitor and filter, they still must block data collection and have age requirements in place.

According to The Verge, Meta and TikTok didn’t reply to a request for comment on whether they were planning changes to comply with the new law.

 
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