Section 509.053 - Digital Service Provider Duty To Prevent Harm To Known Minors(a) In relation to a known minor's use of a digital service, a digital service provider shall develop and implement a strategy to prevent the known minor's exposure to harmful material and other content that promotes, glorifies, or facilitates: (1) suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders; (3) stalking, bullying, or harassment; or (4) grooming, trafficking, child pornography, or other sexual exploitation or abuse. (b) A strategy developed under Subsection (a): (1) must include: (A) creating and maintaining a comprehensive list of harmful material or other content described by Subsection (a) to block from display to a known minor; (B) using filtering technology and other protocols to enforce the blocking of material or content on the list under Paragraph (A); (C) using hash-sharing technology and other protocols to identify recurring harmful material or other content described by Subsection (a); (D) creating and maintaining a database of keywords used for filter evasion, such as identifiable misspellings, hash-tags, or identifiable homoglyphs; (E) performing standard human-performed monitoring reviews to ensure efficacy of filtering technology; (F) making available to users a comprehensive description of the categories of harmful material or other content described by Subsection (a) that will be filtered; and (G) except as provided by Section 509.058, making available the digital service provider's algorithm code to independent security researchers; and (2) may include: (A) engaging a third party to rigorously review the digital service provider's content filtering technology; (B) participating in industry-specific partnerships to share best practices in preventing access to harmful material or other content described by Subsection (a); or (C) conducting periodic independent audits to ensure: (i) continued compliance with the digital service provider's strategy; and (ii) efficacy of filtering technology and protocols used by the digital service provider. Tex. Bus. and Comm. Code § 509.053
Added by Acts 2023 , Texas Acts of the 88th Leg.- Regular Session , ch. 795, Sec. 2.01, eff. 9/1/2024.