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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched a wide-ranging investigation into 15 companies over their handling of child data, highlighting the expanding reach of digital regulation. The probe, which includes Rumble and Quora among its targets, centers on compliance with Texas' Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, or SCOPE. With potential penalties ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, companies are under pressure to improve their practices and comply with the law.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into 15 tech companies over their handling of minors' data. The investigation centers on Texas' Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE), which requires companies to ask for users' age and provide parental control over kids' account settings. Companies must answer eight questions by next week, including the number of Texas minors they count as users and have shared data with. Paxton's office did not comment on how it chose which businesses to investigate, but experts believe it could result in companies agreeing to improve their practices or facing hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. State lawmakers are taking a leading role in regulating online safety due to the lack of federal comprehensive privacy laws and significant updates in child online safety rules.
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has once again taken the reins of his office's significant resources to investigate well-known tech giants over how they moderate content and treat rivals. In a recent development, Paxton’s latest investigation includes an expansive number of targets, WIRED has learned. Rumble, Quora, WeChat, Kick, Kik, Pinterest, Telegram, Twitch, Tumblr, WhatsApp, and Whisper are among the 15 companies from which Texas has demanded answers by next week about their collection and use of data of people under 18 years old.
Paxton announced the investigation in a press release last month but named only four of the companies being probed—Character.AI, Reddit, Instagram, and Discord. WIRED obtained the names of additional targeted companies through a public records request. The variety of companies questioned highlights the sprawling reach of a new Texas law aimed at increasing oversight of minors’ use of social media and chat services.
The investigation centers on compliance with Texas’ Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, or SCOPE, which went into effect in September. It applies to any website or app with social media or chat functions and that registers users under the age of 18, making it more expansive than the federal law, which covers only services catering to under-13 users.
SCOPE requires services to ask for users’ age and provide parents or guardians power over kids’ account settings and user data. Companies also are barred from selling information gathered about minors without parental permission. In October, Paxton sued TikTok for allegedly violating the law by providing inadequate parental controls and disclosing data without consent. TikTok has denied the allegations.
Paxton’s office did not respond to requests for comment, including about how it chose which businesses to investigate. However, three experts in youth privacy regulations who have been following Paxton's enforcement efforts say that the new investigation should be treated credibly, and they believe it could result in companies agreeing to improve their practices. The alternative could be up to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties per company.
"When you bring all the statues together, Texas has a pretty significant hammer," says Paul Singer, a partner and section chair at the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren. "This new investigation is part of that broader effort."
The United States Congress has never passed a comprehensive privacy law, and it hasn’t significantly updated child online safety rules in a quarter century. That has left state lawmakers and regulators to play a big role.
Three experts who spoke with WIRED described Rumble, Quora, and WeChat as unusual suspects but declined to speculate on the rationale behind their inclusion in the investigation. Josh Golin, executive director of the nonprofit Fairplay, which advocates for digital safety for kids, says concerns aren’t always obvious. Few advocacy groups worried about Pinterest, for example, until the case of a British teen who died from self-harm following exposure to sensitive content on the platform.
Paxton’s press release last month called his new investigation “a critical step toward ensuring that social media and AI companies comply with our laws designed to protect children from exploitation and harm."
In total, companies must answer eight questions by next week, including the number of Texas minors they count as users and have barred for registering an inaccurate birthdate. Lists of whom minors’ data is sold or shared with have to be turned over. Whether any companies have already responded to the demand couldn’t be learned.
Tech company lobbying groups are challenging the constitutionality of SCOPE Act in court. In August, they secured an initial and partial victory when a federal judge in Austin, Texas, ruled that a provision requiring companies to take steps to prevent minors from seeing self-harm and abusive content was too vague.
But even a complete win might not be a salve for tech companies. States including Maryland and New York are expected to enforce similar laws starting later this year. And state attorneys general could resort to pursuing narrower cases under their tried-and-true laws barring deceptive business practices. "What we see is often information gets shared or sold or disclosed in ways families didn’t expect or understand," says Ariel Fox Johnson, an attorney and principal of the consultancy Digital Smarts Law & Policy. “As more laws are enacted that create firm requirements, it seems to be becoming more clear that not everybody is in compliance.”
Related Information:
https://www.wired.com/story/texas-social-media-investigation-children-privacy/
Published: Thu Jan 9 17:47:41 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
