TEXAS PARENTS GAIN NEW TOOLS TO CONTROL THEIR TEEN'S SOCIAL MEDIA USE

Parents of Texas children under 18 can now monitor and restrict their child's activity on digital platforms including Facebook and Instagram - but only if they know their child uses the service.

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Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, rolled out parental control features in Texas to comply with House Bill 18, the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act, which went into effect Sept. 1. The Legislature passed it last year to restrict kids from seeing harmful material on the internet, such as content promoting self-harm or substance abuse, while also giving parents more power to regulate what their child does online.

Meta’s tools allow parents who can prove their identity with a valid ID to see and update their teen’s account settings, set time limits on the child’s usage and even delete a minor child’s Instagram or Facebook account altogether.

Parents rights advocates say the new tools are helpful but don’t go far enough to protect young people online.

“It will be hard to intervene unless you know your kid is using the product,” said Zach Whiting, a policy director and senior fellow for The Texas Public Policy Foundation who testified in favor of the law. He said a stronger policy would restrict teens under 18 from creating a social media account to begin with unless they first obtained parental consent. Most social media companies already restrict children under 13 from creating an account.

“If we treat social media like any other harmful product, there are age verification requirements for those, like smoking and drinking,” Whiting said. “I think it’s an appropriate extension to do that for social media.”