AUSTIN, Texas — This week, Texas lawmakers heard intense testimony during a joint hearing held to help them determine the best way to protect minors online.

What You Need To Know

  • Lawmakers heard intense testimony during a joint hearing meant to help them determine the best way to protect minors online

  • Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, filed a bill that requires age verification for new social media users and allows parents to remove a child’s account from the platform

  • Sen. Angela Paxton, R-District 8, plans to re-file a bill that requires social media platforms to create filters that prevent a minor from seeing explicit materials

  • The American Psychological Association is noticing the impact of constant notifications and scrolling

“I was exposed to pornography at 13 years old,” said Joshua Broome, a Dallas resident and pastor.

Broome told the committee early access to explicit content skewed his views on intimacy and led him to work in the adult film industry.

“Well, that led to me trying to take my life,” said Broome.

Broom now uses social media to advocate against the harmful effects on minors, which also include lack of sleep and self-harm.

“Internet addiction is rapidly becoming more common and more harmful among young people than smoking, drinking and all other substance addictions,” said Robert Epstein with the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology.

Snapchat, TikTok, X and Meta declined to testify in front of the Texas committee.

“It’s a slap in the face to every Texan when social media companies fail to show up and address the concerns we have for our children,” said Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco.

Patterson is part of the effort to hold companies accountable. He filed a bill that requires age verification for new social media users and allows parents to remove a child’s account from the platform.

Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, plans to re-file a bill that requires social media platforms to create filters that prevent a minor from seeing explicit materials. If it doesn’t pass again, she has other legislation in mind.

“We can certainly make sure that one of the places where kids are being exposed to these kinds of things is not in their classroom and their school library,” said Paxton.

The effort to protect kids online is a bipartisan issue. Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, is not on the committee but filed a bill to create guidelines for educators to follow when kids report cyberbullying.

“For young people, we know that if we don’t put guardrails on technology, then sometimes it can be misused,” she said.

A simple Instagram story could easily target or sway young social media users. The American Psychological Association is also noticing the impact of constant notifications and scrolling.

“It might actually change how adolescents’ brains grow to make them a little bit more interested in that kind of self-focused feedback from peers and maybe a little bit less able to use their brain’s brakes or the inhibition system that keeps them from pursuing every possible impulse,” said APA Chief of Psychology Strategy and Integration Dr. Mitch Prinstein.

Texas already has one age verification law for access to porn websites, but the law is currently being challenged as a violation of free speech. The Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hear arguments on the case next Wednesday.