Minors, Apps, and AI

Short Answer

Services used by minors can trigger overlapping rules. SB 2420 adds app-store and developer age, consent and data duties; verified appellate orders stayed the preliminary injunction. The Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE Act) has distinct coverage and a partly enjoined monitoring requirement. The Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA) restricts specified sexual conversations impersonating a child and systems intentionally encouraging self-harm. HB 581 addresses covered public tools creating sexual material harmful to minors. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) covers children under 13 according to the service’s audience and actual knowledge; its 2025 amendments generally required compliance by April 22, 2026. Determine the user age, service features and applicable provision separately rather than treating all minors’ AI services as one statutory category.

Which Laws Apply

• Texas AI-specific: Business and Commerce Code § 552.052 (intentional incitement or encouragement of self-harm and other specified conduct); Business and Commerce Code § 552.057(2); HB 581.
• Generally applicable Texas law: Business and Commerce Code chapter 121 (SB 2420); HB 18 (SCOPE Act); Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA) treatment of known children’s data as sensitive data; Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (DTPA).
• Federal: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the amended COPPA Rule; Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act (TAKE IT DOWN Act); Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act.

App Stores and Developers (SB 2420)

App stores must verify each Texas user’s age category at account creation using a commercially reasonable method, link minors’ accounts to a verified parent, obtain parental consent for each download and purchase, and share age and consent status with developers. Developers must assign age ratings, notify app stores of significant changes, use app store age data to enforce restrictions and limit their use of that data. Violations are deceptive trade practices. Good-faith reliance on widely adopted standards and on app store information provides some protection.

A district court issued preliminary injunctions in December 2025. The Fifth Circuit’s June 4, 2026 published order stayed them pending appeal and superseded its earlier administrative stay. The Supreme Court denied the application to vacate that stay July 6, 2026. The orders did not decide the ultimate merits. The Fifth Circuit heard argument August 4, 2026. The last verified procedural event is the August 4, 2026 argument; a complete current docket check was not available, so this page reports the dated procedural record rather than stating whether the court has issued a merits decision.

The SCOPE Act

The SCOPE Act is Business and Commerce Code chapter 509. On July 24, 2026, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the preliminary injunction obtained by CCIA and NetChoice against the monitoring and filtering requirement in Business and Commerce Code § 509.053, finding likely Section 230 preemption. It vacated the separate SEAT plaintiffs’ injunction for lack of the required standing showing and remanded. The decision did not invalidate the whole chapter. Data-minimization, parental and other provisions must be considered individually, with the relief and covered parties identified.

AI-Specific Rules

TRAIGA Business and Commerce Code § 552.057(2) restricts the specified sexual conversations impersonating a child. For covered publicly accessible tools creating sexual material harmful to minors, Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 129B.002(a-1) requires reasonable age verification before access. Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 129B.0045 provides a specified source-image exception where the real source person is an adult and consents, subject to the additional conditions in Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 129B.002(a-2). It does not remove the separate adult-user access requirement.

Business and Commerce Code § 552.052 separately prohibits developing or deploying an AI system with the intentional aim of inciting or encouraging a person to commit physical self-harm (including suicide), harm another person, or engage in criminal activity. The provision applies to any person, not only to services used by minors, and it requires an intentional aim to incite or encourage the specified conduct; it is not a blanket ban on every harmful output.

Federal Rules

The amended COPPA Rule took effect June 23, 2025, with a general compliance date of April 22, 2026 and specified exceptions. It adds separate verifiable parental consent for covered third-party disclosures, retention-policy and security-program requirements. Coverage and the integral-to-service exception must be read in the rule. The FTC issued 6(b) orders September 11, 2025 to seven companies offering AI companion chatbots, asking about child safety and product testing; an inquiry is not a violation finding.

Enforcement in Texas

The Attorney General announced investigations of Meta AI Studio and Character.AI on August 18, 2025 concerning allegedly deceptive mental-health chatbot marketing. That announcement and the FTC’s September 11 inquiry are information-gathering steps. Neither establishes liability. An injury claim requires separate evidence of the interaction, duty and causation.

Illustrative Example (Hypothetical)

Hypothetical: a Texas startup offers an AI study app to high-school students. Its app distribution raises Business and Commerce Code chapter 121 age-rating, signal and consent duties under the verified stay orders. COPPA requires a separate analysis if the service is directed to children under 13 or has actual knowledge of their use. Social features can raise Business and Commerce Code chapter 509 questions. Safety testing should address self-harm responses, and Business and Commerce Code § 552.052 prohibits developing or deploying an AI system with the intentional aim of inciting or encouraging self-harm. Business and Commerce Code § 552.057 prohibits the specified sexual conversations impersonating a child. An ordinary study app does not become a Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 129B sexual-material tool merely because it uses AI.

What Is Unsettled

App-store litigation, the scope of covered services and later legislation can change obligations. The cited stay orders permitted enforcement without resolving the merits. The SCOPE decision addresses particular preliminary relief, not invalidation of the whole chapter. Each claimed obligation should be tied to the provision and relief that reaches the service.