What Is
What Is the SCOPE Act
The Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE Act), Business and Commerce Code chapter 509, regulates digital services that let users interact socially, keep a public or semi-public profile, and post content others can see (§509.002). It was enacted in 2023 as HB 18 and took effect September 1, 2024. A minor is anyone under 18 whose disabilities of minority have not been removed (§509.001(5)); a known minor is one the provider knows to be a minor (§509.001(4)). Exempt services include state agencies, financial institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, HIPAA-covered entities, qualifying small businesses, colleges, education-focused services, email and direct-messaging-only services, and news, sports, and commerce sites whose interactive features are incidental (§509.002). The three-part social-service test does not limit §509.057's separate age-verification provision; assess that provision and the chapter's exemptions independently.
The statute sets out the following duties; the injunction affecting §§509.053 and 509.056(1) is discussed below.
- have each user register an age before creating an account, and treat a user who registers as under 18 as a known minor (§509.051);
- for known minors, unless a verified parent changes these limits, collect only data the service needs, allow no purchases, not sell or share the minor's data, not collect precise geolocation, and show no targeted advertising (§509.052);
- keep known minors from content promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse, bullying, grooming, trafficking, and sexual exploitation, through filtering and related measures, subject to the injunction described below (§509.053);
- give verified parents tools to manage privacy settings, purchases, and screen time, and let them review, download, or delete the minor's data (§§509.054, 509.101 to 509.103);
- try to keep advertisers from targeting known minors with products unlawful for minors (§509.055); §509.056(1)'s algorithm-interference condition is subject to the injunction described below, while §509.056(2) requires explanatory disclosure of how content algorithms work; and,
- verify that users are adults if more than one-third of the material it knowingly publishes is harmful or obscene (§509.057).
The Attorney General enforces the Act through the DTPA (§509.151). Parents and guardians of an affected known minor may seek only a declaratory judgment or an injunction, and not as a class (§509.152).
In the consolidated preliminary-injunction appeals, Nos. 24-50721 and 25-50096, the Fifth Circuit's July 24, 2026 opinion affirmed the CCIA/NetChoice injunction addressing the monitoring-and-filtering duty in §509.053 and the related algorithm duty in §509.056(1). It vacated the SEAT preliminary injunction and remanded, with different standing and merits analyses for the challenged provisions. The age-registration duty in §509.051 was not enjoined. This was an interlocutory preliminary-injunction decision. Any present-status statement should identify the later orders or docket actually checked.
Pinpoint: Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 509. Related term: Known minor (SCOPE Act).