To do that, the legislation places several requirements on social media platforms, including that they verify the age of users, hand control of teens’ accounts to their parents, and ban certain content for anyone younger than 18.

Nowhere in the SCOPE Act’s text is so-called grooming content defined, but for anyone who’s followed Texas’ war on school libraries, that word shouldn’t be hard to recognize.

“Child grooming” is the same justification that Texas school board members and far-right activists across the country have used to ban LGBTQ books from local libraries.

On top of censoring and isolating the LGBTQ community, the SCOPE Act presents privacy risks for both minors and adults in Texas.

In order to comply with the law, social media platforms will be required to verify users’ ages and confirm the identity and location of both a parent and their child when setting up a minor’s account.

This means forcing online platforms to collect and store sensitive data on anyone who makes an account, heightening privacy risks for all Texans.

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[–] K1nsey6 0 points 1 year ago

Wait until you hear about KOSA

[–] soviettaters -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good. Social media (particularly mainstream but lemmy isn't perfect) is horrible and destructive to teens' minds. There's a reason that so many teenagers are becoming extremists.

[–] Brunbrun6766 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Think you're misunderstanding this, they're talking about gay teens living in communities where they may not know any other people like themselves, online communities give them a social outlet

[–] soviettaters -1 points 1 year ago

Even so, the dangers apply to everyone.