Earlier this week, we described Texas’s new youth privacy law, the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, and previewed that the Texas Attorney General is likely to use it to target social media platforms. And we were correct: yesterday, Texas sued TikTok under the SCOPE Act for allegedly “exploiting Texas children and failing to prioritize minors’ online safety and privacy.” The lawsuit is the first alleging violations of the SCOPE Act.
The 14-page complaint, filed in the District Court of Galveston County, asserts that TikTok failed to comply with a number of the Act’s requirements, including:
- No Parent/Guardian Verification: The SCOPE Act requires that digital service providers such as TikTok use a “commercially reasonable method” to verify a parent or guardian’s identity and relationship to the minor. The lawsuit alleges that, even though TikTok allows parents of children between 13 and 17 years old to “manage a variety of content, privacy, and well-being settings,” it does not verify parents’ identities. Texas further asserts that even if TikTok were to verify parents’ identities, its current practices are not “commercially reasonable” because (i) minors have sole discretion to deny their parent access to TikTok’s “limited” parental tools; and (ii) TikTok requires a parent to create an account before being able to use the app’s tools.
- Unlawful Sharing, Disclosing, and Selling of Minors’ PII: The Act prohibits social media companies from sharing, disclosing, or selling a minor’s PII unless a verified parent or guardian has provided otherwise. The complaint alleges that TikTok, without parental permission, shares, discloses, and sells minors’ PII to advertisers and search engines. Additionally—and notably—Texas asserts that TikTok also violated the Act by sharing and disclosing minors’ PII to other TikTok users. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that TikTok users who search for a minor on the app are able to view the minor’s PII, including name, username, profile image, social media contacts, and/or user content, depending on the minor’s account settings.
- Failure to Create and Provide Parental Tools: The complaint asserts that TikTok failed to create and provide “parental tools” in contravention of the Act. According to the lawsuit, these tools must include, among other things, the ability for a verified parent to control or limit a known minor’s privacy and account settings.
Through the lawsuit, Texas AG Ken Paxton is seeking civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and injunctive relief to prevent future violations of the Act.
The suit highlights that youth privacy remains a top priority for Texas and demonstrates that the state is not afraid to use untested tools in its related enforcement actions. Digital service providers (which we defined in our previous post) operating in Texas should review the Texas AG’s complaint and ensure their practices are consistent with the SCOPE Act’s requirements and the suit’s allegations.
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