Texas Children's Privacy Laws (2026)

App Store Accountability Act · SB 2420

In force: Effective and enforceable today. · App store · effective 2026-01-01 · binds app stores, developers

Ages: Under 18 (parental consent required for minors; age categories: child, younger teen, older teen, adult)

Requires: App stores must verify the age of every account holder at account creation; minors' accounts must be linked to a parent/guardian account; parental consent is required before a minor may download or purchase an app or make in-app purchases; app stores must share age-bracket and parental-consent signals with developers, who must apply them.

Litigation: CCIA v. Paxton / SEAT v. Paxton (W.D. Tex., related dockets). Dec 23, 2025: PI granted enjoining the Act on First Amendment grounds (blocking the Jan 1, 2026 effective date). June 4, 2026: Fifth Circuit stayed the PI pending appeal, finding Texas likely to succeed on the merits. June 10-19, 2026: challengers (Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and CCIA) filed SCOTUS emergency applications (25A1389, 25A1390) to vacate the stay; Texas responded. July 6, 2026: SCOTUS denied both emergency applications in brief unsigned orders with no noted dissents, so the Fifth Circuit's stay remains in effect and the Act stays enforceable. An expedited Fifth Circuit merits argument on the underlying appeal is expected in early August 2026.

Entry last reviewed 2026-07-18

Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act · HB 18

In force: Effective and enforceable today. · Social media · effective 2024-09-01 · binds operators, platforms

Ages: Under 18 (known minors)

Requires: Digital service providers must register whether a user is a minor; obtain verifiable parental consent before creating a known minor's account; provide parental control/oversight tools; limit collection/use/sale/sharing of a minor's personal data; provide default privacy protections; and prevent minors from agreeing to terms without parental approval. (Content monitoring/filtering, certain targeted-ad limits, and one age-verification provision are currently enjoined.)

Litigation: Computer & Communications Industry Association v. Paxton, No. 24-50721, consolidated with Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton, No. 25-50096 (5th Cir.), from W.D. Tex. Nos. 1:24-cv-849 and 1:24-cv-945. Decided 2026-07-24 (Douglas, joined by Higginbotham; Ho concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part). The panel AFFIRMED the Aug 30, 2024 injunction won by CCIA and NetChoice, holding the monitoring-and-filtering requirement (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code 509.053, together with the algorithm provision 509.056(1)) preempted by 47 U.S.C. 230(c)(1); it expressly declined to reach the First Amendment and vagueness questions. It VACATED the separate Feb 7, 2025 injunction, holding the SEAT plaintiffs lack standing to challenge monitoring-and-filtering, targeted advertising (509.052(2)(D)) and unlawful ads (509.055), and that their age-verification challenge (509.057) is foreclosed by Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025); that case was remanded and the panel noted the standing defect may be curable. Net effect: monitoring-and-filtering stays enjoined, while targeted advertising, unlawful ads and age verification become enforceable once the mandate issues, which the docket sets for 2026-08-14. Status stays in_force rather than enacted_enjoined because the ruling narrows the injunction: the parental-consent, data-minimization and parental-control duties were never enjoined and more of the Act is enforceable after this decision than before. Distinct from the App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) appeals, Nos. 25-51073 and 26-50001.

Entry last reviewed 2026-07-30

Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA): minors' provisions · HB 4 (88th Leg., R.S.)

In force: Effective and enforceable today. · Privacy law (minors) · effective 2024-07-01 · binds operators

Ages: Children under 13 (a 'known child'); no separate heightened opt-in tier for teens 13-17

Requires: Personal data collected from a known child is classified as 'sensitive data' (Sec. 541.001(29)(C)), and a controller must process a known child's sensitive data in accordance with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rather than via ordinary consent (Sec. 541.101(b)(4)). Texas does not impose a minor-specific opt-in for selling/sharing or targeted advertising to teens (those remain general consumer opt-out rights), so the only heightened minor-specific duty is COPPA-compliant handling of under-13 data.

Entry last reviewed 2026-07-18