Legislation that would have banned anyone under the age of 18 from using or creating social media accounts in Texas stalled in the Senate this week after lawmakers failed to vote on it.
House Bill 186, filed by state Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), would have prohibited minors from creating accounts on social media sites such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and others by requiring the platforms to verify users’ age.
The measure previously passed the GOP-controlled state House with broad bipartisan support in April, but momentum behind the bill slowed at the eleventh hour in the state Senate this week as lawmakers face a weekend deadline to send bills to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
The legislative session ends on Monday.
In a statement on the social media platform X late Thursday, Patterson said the bill’s failure to pass in the Senate was “the biggest disappointment of my career,” adding that no other bill filed this session “would have protected more kids in more ways than this one.”
The Republican lawmaker said he believed its failure to pass meant “I’ve failed these kids and their families.”
“I felt the weight of an entire generation of kids who’ve had their mental health severely handicapped as a result of the harms of social media,” the lawmaker said. “And then there’s the others - the parents of Texas kids who’ve died as a result of a stupid social media ‘challenge’ or by suicide after being pulled down the dangerous rabbit holes social media uses to hook their users, addict them on their products, and drive them to depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.”
“Finally, there’s the perfectly happy and healthy teens in Texas today, who will find themselves slowly falling off the edge before the legislature meets again in 2027,” he stated.
Patterson suggested he would try and pass the measure again when the Texas Legislature meets in 2027.
House Bill 186 would have prohibited a child from entering into a contract with a social media platform to become an account holder and required platforms to verify that a person seeking to become an account holder is 18 years of age or older before allowing them to create an account.
The legislation would have also required social media platforms to delete accounts belonging to individuals under the age of 18 at a parent or guardian’s request.
Provisions in House Bill 186
According to the bill, the accounts would need to be removed no later than 10 days after receiving such a request, and the platforms would also be required to cease “further use or maintenance in retrievable form, or future online collection, of personal information collected from the child ’s account, on all of its platforms.”
Additionally, the measure would have required platforms to provide a “reasonable, accessible, and verifiable means by which a parent or guardian” could make a request to have their child’s account deleted.
If signed into law, the bill would have gone into effect in September 2025.
Social media companies’ failure to comply with the legislation would have been considered a deceptive trade practice, meaning they could face legal action under Texas consumer protection laws.
While the measure was widely championed by Republicans, it drew sharp condemnation from tech trade groups and critics who branded it an unconstitutional limit on free speech.
Trade association Netchoice said the bill’s core provisions were “unconstitutional,” while the age-verification stipulation “presents heightened threats to privacy and undermines the state’s interest in protecting the privacy of users.”
In addition, the association said the HB 186 “usurps parental decision making.”
The bill’s failure to make it past the state Senate comes as Abbot signed into law a separate measure this week requiring Apple and Google to verify the age of online app store users.
That legislation also requires parental consent to download apps and make in-app purchases for users under 18.
Utah passed a similar bill earlier this year. California is also set to make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent, beginning in 2027.
Florida passed a similar law last year banning social media accounts for children under the age of 14 and requiring parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
