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Texas Policy Research submitted the following written testimony to all members of the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs ahead of its interim hearing.
- Committee: House Committee on State Affairs
- Hearing Date: September 15, 2026
- Context: 89th Legislature, Interim
- Subject: Protecting Minors on Online Gaming Platforms
- Position: Informational
- Texas Liberty Compact: Protect Free Speech & Digital Expression
- Submitted By: Jeramy Kitchen
- Entity: Texas Policy Research Action (TPRA)
The text below reproduces the testimony as submitted to the committee.
The submitted document linked above is the authoritative version.
Chairman King and Members of the Committee,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments regarding the protection of minors on online gaming platforms.
Online gaming platforms combine entertainment, communication, commerce, and user-generated content. These features can expose children to predators, exploitation, fraud, inappropriate material, and manipulative practices. Texas has a legitimate interest in addressing those harms, but protecting children does not require treating every Texan as a child or subjecting all users to government-directed identity checks and speech controls.
Lawmakers should concentrate first on harmful conduct. Texas should vigorously enforce laws against grooming, sexual exploitation, trafficking, fraud, threats, and the creation or distribution of illegal content. Platforms should also be held accountable when they materially misrepresent their safety practices, knowingly facilitate unlawful conduct, or fail to provide protections they expressly promise to parents and users.
Platforms offering accounts or experiences intended for minors should provide meaningful safety-by-default settings. These may include limits on unsolicited adult communications, location sharing, unauthorized purchases, and public exposure of personal information. Parents should have understandable tools to manage communications, purchases, content settings, and account activity without needing technical expertise. Those tools should support parental authority rather than transfer it to the government.
Age-verification mandates require particular caution. Systems that require every user to submit identification, biometric information, or other sensitive data can create new privacy and security risks. A policy intended to protect children should not build a digital-identity infrastructure capable of tracking lawful activity by adults. Any age-assurance requirement should be narrowly tailored, collect the least information necessary, offer privacy-preserving alternatives, prohibit secondary use, and require prompt deletion.
The Legislature should also distinguish illegal material from constitutionally protected expression. Terms such as "violent," "harmful," or "inappropriate" can become vague invitations for broad content regulation. Texas may target exploitation and unlawful material, but it should not pressure platforms to suppress lawful speech, monitor every private conversation, or restrict anonymous expression.
Liability rules should focus on a platform's own conduct, knowledge, representations, and material participation in a harm. They should not impose generalized liability for lawful third-party expression or attempt to disregard federal preemption, Section 230, or the First Amendment. Constitutional and federal limits are not loopholes. They are part of the rule of law.
The Texas Liberty Compact calls for protecting free speech and digital expression while prioritizing targeted consumer protections over broad speech controls. Child safety, parental authority, privacy, and constitutional liberty can be protected together when lawmakers define the actual harm and address it narrowly.
Texas should target predators, exploitation, deception, and demonstrably unsafe practices while preserving parental responsibility and the rights of lawful users.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sources
- Section 230, Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230
- House Bill 18 (HB 18), the SCOPE Act, 88th Legislative Session (2023)
- Interim Charges, Texas House of Representatives, 89th Legislature
Related TPR Work
- Fifth Circuit Blocks Key SCOPE Act Provision, July 2026
- Texas App Store Law Remains in Effect as Legal Fight Continues, July 2026
- Texas Secures Discord Injunction as Child Safety Debate Grows, July 2026
- Written Testimony, Protecting Minors Online | Senate State Affairs, 9.14.2026
- Written Testimony, Social Media's Impact on Youth | House Public Health, 8.20.2026
For all TPR work on this subject, see our Online Child Safety topic page.
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