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House Bill 1181 |
House Author: Shaheen et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-23 |
Senate Sponsor: Paxton et al. |
House Bill 1181 amends the Civil Practice and Remedies Code to require a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on a website, including a social media platform, more than one‑third of which is sexual material harmful to minors, to use reasonable age verification methods to verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older. The bill requires the entity to display certain notices regarding pornography and mental health on the landing page of the website and on all advertisements for that website and to display information on the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Helpline on the bottom of every page of the website.
House Bill 1181 does not apply to a bona fide news or public interest broadcast, website video, report, or event and may not be construed to affect the rights of a news‑gathering organization. The bill prohibits an Internet service provider, or its affiliates or subsidiaries, a search engine, or a cloud service provider from being held to have violated the bill's provisions solely for providing access or connection to or from a website or other information or content on the Internet or on a facility, system, or network not under that provider's control to the extent the provider or search engine is not responsible for the creation of the content that constitutes sexual material harmful to minors.
House Bill 1181 provides for the attorney general to bring an action against an entity that knowingly violates the bill's provisions to enjoin the violation, recover a civil penalty, and obtain other relief the court considers appropriate and authorizes the attorney general to recover reasonable and necessary attorney's fees and costs incurred in the action. The bill sets out a range of penalty amounts for violations based on the seriousness of the violation and other matters.