Texas probes tech platforms over security and privateness of minors

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Texas Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ken Pax­ton stated on Thursday his workplace launched investigations into over a dozen expertise platforms over their privateness and security practices for minors.

These being probed included synthetic Intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI and fourteen different platforms like Reddit, Instagram and Discord, the Texas legal professional normal added.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Tech platforms have come beneath rising scrutiny over their influence on kids. High U.S. social media platforms made an estimated $11 billion in promoting income from customers youthful than 18 in 2022, in keeping with a Harvard research printed final yr.

U.S. Surgeon Normal Vivek Murthy final yr warned that younger individuals utilizing social media risked struggling physique picture points, disordered consuming, poor sleep high quality and low shallowness, particularly amongst adolescent ladies.

KEY QUOTE

“Know-how corporations are on discover that my workplace is vigorously implementing Texas’ sturdy information privateness legal guidelines,” Paxton stated.

CONTEXT

Social media corporations have stated they’ll work with officers to guard younger customers, and say they’ve launched new instruments designed to guard teenagers on-line, together with parental management options. The corporations had no quick touch upon Thursday.

Paxton’s assertion stated the probes would deal with the platforms’ compliance with two Texas legal guidelines – the Securing Kids On-line via Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act and the Texas Knowledge Privateness and Safety Act (TDPSA).

The SCOPE Act bans digital service suppliers from sharing, disclosing, or promoting a minor’s private figuring out info with out permission from the kid’s mum or dad or authorized guardian. The laws requires corporations to offer mother and father with instruments to handle and management the privateness settings on their kid’s account.

The TDPSA imposes discover and consent necessities on corporations that accumulate and use minors’ private information, Paxton’s workplace stated.