Rep. Jared Patterson, the Frisco Republican who led last year’s push to rein in kids’ screen time, is not backing off. He says he plans to revive his effort to keep children off major social platforms, this time going after users younger than 16. His 2025 version cleared the Texas House but stalled before it could ever become law.
As reported by CBS News Texas, Patterson said he will take another run at it in 2026. The earlier bill sailed through the House on a 116-25 vote but was never taken up in the Senate, according to The Texas Tribune.
What the 2025 bill would have done
Filed as House Bill 186, the proposal would have flat-out barred children from creating social-media accounts. It also would have required platforms to verify users’ ages with a "commercially reasonable" method tied to public or transactional data, and it instructed companies to shut down a child’s account within 10 days after receiving a verified parental request. Violations are treated in the bill text as deceptive trade practices that the attorney general could enforce, according to the language posted on LegiScan.
Why Patterson says he’s shifting to 16
Patterson told CBS News Texas that lowering the cutoff is meant to line up Texas with recent international moves and to respond to concerns about teens’ mental health. Australia moved in December 2025 to block many platforms for users under 16, according to guidance from the Australian eSafety Commissioner.
Legal hurdles ahead
Texas has already run into trouble when it tries to police kids’ phones. A federal judge in Austin blocked the state’s app-store age-verification law in December, saying it likely violated the First Amendment, Reuters reported. Civil-liberties groups and tech trade associations warn that a broad ban on minors could face the same kind of constitutional fire. The Associated Press notes that Patterson has previously said he would push the issue again when the Legislature returns in 2027.
What it would mean for families and platforms
Critics say mandatory age checks could pressure platforms to scoop up IDs or transactional data, which might make it harder for low-income Texans to get online and could chill access for adults who rely on anonymity. Those concerns were laid out by the Dallas Morning News. The bill’s enforcement hook would point the attorney general’s consumer-protection powers at companies that do not comply, a detail spelled out in the text on LegiScan.
Patterson says he is not dropping the idea, but the Texas Legislature meets in regular session only in odd-numbered years. The next regular session is set for 2027, which means any comeback attempt would either wait until then or depend on a governor-called special session, per the Texas House. Observers say a mix of technical constraints, legal skepticism, and industry pushback will make any future version a tough slog, in court as well as at the Capitol.
