Social media companies can’t be forced to block teens from seeing ‘harmful’ content, judge rules

A federal decide has dominated that social media firms can’t be required to dam sure forms of content material from teenagers. The ruling will forestall some points of a controversial social media legislation in Texas from going into impact.

The ruling got here as the results of tech trade teams’ problem to the Securing Kids On-line By way of Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, a Texas legislation that imposes age verification necessities and different insurance policies for the way social media firms deal with teenage customers. However, as The Verge , the measure additionally requires firms to “forestall the recognized minor’s publicity to dangerous materials,” together with content material that “glorifies” self-harm and substance abuse.

It’s that latter requirement that was struck down, with the decide saying that “a state can not decide and select which classes of protected speech it needs to dam youngsters from discussing on-line.” The decide additionally criticized the language used within the legislation, writing in his choice that phrases like “glorifying” and “selling” are “politically charged” and “undefined.”

On the identical time, the decide left different points of the legislation, together with age verification necessities and bans on focused promoting to minors, in place. NetChoice, the tech trade group that challenged the legislation, has that measures just like the Scope Act require main tech firms to extend the quantity of knowledge collected from minors.

The Texas legislation, initially handed final yr, is one in all many throughout the nation making an attempt how social media platforms take care of underage customers. New York lately handed limiting social media firms’ potential to gather information on teenage customers, and requiring parental consent for youthful customers to entry “addictive” options like algorithmic feeds. California lawmakers additionally lately a measure, which has but to be signed into legislation by the governor, that requires social media firms to restrict notifications to minors and prohibit them from “addictive” algorithms.