Att. Gen. Ken Paxton has sued TikTok for violating a new Texas law protecting children’s safety.
In the lawsuit, Paxton claimed that TikTok has gathered and sold the personal data of minors, including their date of birth, email, phone number, device settings (such as device type, language preference, and country setting), and user information (such as TikTok videos viewed, liked, shared, accounts followed, comments, video captions, and hashtags).
TikTok’s actions violate the state’s Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act.
The SCOPE Act was officially enacted on September 1, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The law requires digital service providers like social media companies and other apps to protect minors from harmful content and data collection practices.
The digital service provider must first obtain permission from the child’s legal guardian to share, disclose, or sell the minor’s personal data. Additionally, the SCOPE Act requires companies to provide parents with tools to control the privacy of their children’s accounts.
According to Paxton, TikTok has failed to comply. He is seeking penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and is working to prevent TikTok from committing future violations of the SCOPE Act.
The SCOPE Act does not apply to state agencies, certain small businesses, or financial institutions covered by federal laws like HIPAA, higher education, internet service providers, search engines, or cloud service providers.
Digital service providers can only be exempt from the law if they process user data for employment or educational services, if they facilitate access to news or sports, or if the digital service only provides email or direct messaging services.
Before it was enacted, a judge blocked provisions of the SCOPE Act that would have required social media companies to filter harmful content, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Major tech companies, including Meta, expressed concerns over the bill and how to adapt to the new regulations.
Once the SCOPE Act was adopted, Meta laid out the new extra supervision features for Instagram and Facebook on its website:
“Laws give parents the right to request access to the following features for teens under 18 who live in Texas:
- The ability to see how much time their teen spends in headset [Meta’s virtual reality system] and set time limits.
- The ability to see and update their teen’s settings.
- The ability to choose whether or not their teen can make purchases.
- The ability to download their teen’s information.
- The ability to delete their teen’s account.”