Bill Text: TX HB581 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Enrolled
Bill Title: Relating to the creation of artificial sexual material harmful to minors.
Sponsorship: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 0000-00-00 - Effective on 9/1/25 [HB581 Detail]
Download: Texas-2025-HB581-Enrolled.html
| H.B. No. 581 | ||
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| relating to the creation of artificial sexual material harmful to | ||
| minors. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. The heading to Chapter 129B, Civil Practice and | ||
| Remedies Code, is amended to read as follows: | ||
| CHAPTER 129B. LIABILITY RELATED TO SEXUAL MATERIAL HARMFUL TO [ |
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| SECTION 2. Section 129B.001, Civil Practice and Remedies | ||
| Code, is amended by amending Subdivision (1) and adding Subdivision | ||
| (1-a) to read as follows: | ||
| (1) "Artificial sexual material harmful to minors" | ||
| means computer-generated sexual material harmful to minors that was | ||
| produced, adapted, or modified using an artificial intelligence | ||
| application or other computer software in which a person is | ||
| recognizable as an actual person by the person's face, likeness, or | ||
| other distinguishing characteristic, such as a unique birthmark or | ||
| other recognizable feature. | ||
| (1-a) "Commercial entity" includes a corporation, | ||
| limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, sole | ||
| proprietorship, or other legally recognized business entity. | ||
| SECTION 3. The heading to Section 129B.002, Civil Practice | ||
| and Remedies Code, is amended to read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 129B.002. PUBLICATION AND CREATION OF MATERIAL HARMFUL | ||
| TO MINORS. | ||
| SECTION 4. Section 129B.002, Civil Practice and Remedies | ||
| Code, is amended by adding Subsections (a-1) and (a-2) and amending | ||
| Subsection (b) to read as follows: | ||
| (a-1) Except as provided by Subsection (a-2), a commercial | ||
| entity that operates an Internet website with a publicly | ||
| accessible tool for creating artificial sexual material harmful to | ||
| minors or otherwise makes publicly available an application for | ||
| creating sexual material harmful to minors shall use reasonable age | ||
| verification methods as described by Section 129B.003 to verify an | ||
| individual attempting to access the tool is 18 years of age or | ||
| older. | ||
| (a-2) Subsection (a-1) does not apply to a commercial entity | ||
| that: | ||
| (1) includes a prohibition against the generation of | ||
| artificial sexual material harmful to minors in the entity's terms | ||
| and conditions or use policies that must be acknowledged before a | ||
| user is granted access; and | ||
| (2) takes affirmative steps to limit the creation of | ||
| artificial sexual material harmful to minors through technological | ||
| tools such as training an application or software creating | ||
| artificial images to identify likely sexual material, providing | ||
| effective reporting tools, filtering likely sexual material, | ||
| filtering sexually explicit content generated by artificial | ||
| intelligence before the material is shown to users, or filtering | ||
| sexually explicit images from the entity's artificial intelligence | ||
| dataset before the dataset is used to train the artificial | ||
| intelligence. | ||
| (b) A commercial entity that performs the age verification | ||
| required by Subsection (a) or (a-1) or a third party that performs | ||
| the age verification required by Subsection (a) or (a-1) may not | ||
| retain any identifying information of the individual. | ||
| SECTION 5. Section 129B.003(b), Civil Practice and Remedies | ||
| Code, is amended to read as follows: | ||
| (b) A commercial entity required to use reasonable age | ||
| verification methods under Section 129B.002 [ |
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| chapter shall require an individual to: | ||
| (1) provide digital identification; or | ||
| (2) comply with a commercial age verification system | ||
| that verifies age using: | ||
| (A) government-issued identification; or | ||
| (B) a commercially reasonable method that relies | ||
| on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an | ||
| individual. | ||
| SECTION 6. Chapter 129B, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, | ||
| is amended by adding Section 129B.0045 to read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 129B.0045. REQUIREMENTS FOR SOURCES OF ARTIFICIAL | ||
| SEXUAL MATERIAL HARMFUL TO MINORS. (a) Except as provided by | ||
| Subsection (b), a commercial entity that operates an Internet | ||
| website with a publicly accessible tool for creating artificial | ||
| sexual material harmful to minors or otherwise makes publicly | ||
| available an application for creating artificial sexual material | ||
| harmful to minors shall ensure that an individual used as a source | ||
| for the material: | ||
| (1) is 18 years of age or older; and | ||
| (2) has consented to the use of the individual's face | ||
| and body as a source for the material. | ||
| (b) This section does not apply to a commercial entity | ||
| described by Section 129B.002(a-2). | ||
| SECTION 7. Section 129B.005(b), Civil Practice and Remedies | ||
| Code, is amended to read as follows: | ||
| (b) An Internet service provider, or its affiliates or | ||
| subsidiaries, a search engine, or a cloud service provider may not | ||
| be held to have violated this chapter solely for providing access or | ||
| connection to or from a website or other information or content on | ||
| the Internet or on a facility, system, or network not under that | ||
| provider's control, including transmission, downloading, | ||
| intermediate storage, access software, or other services to the | ||
| extent the provider or search engine is not responsible for the | ||
| creation of the content that constitutes sexual material harmful to | ||
| minors or artificial sexual material harmful to minors. | ||
| SECTION 8. Section 129B.006(b), Civil Practice and Remedies | ||
| Code, is amended to read as follows: | ||
| (b) A civil penalty imposed under this section for a | ||
| violation of Section 129B.002, [ |
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| in an amount equal to not more than the total, if applicable, of: | ||
| (1) $10,000 per day that the entity operates an | ||
| Internet website or makes available an application in violation of | ||
| the age verification requirements of this chapter; | ||
| (2) $10,000 per instance when the entity retains | ||
| identifying information in violation of Section 129B.002(b); and | ||
| (3) if, because of the entity's violation of the age | ||
| verification requirements of this chapter, one or more minors | ||
| accesses sexual material harmful to minors, an additional amount of | ||
| not more than $250,000. | ||
| SECTION 9. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025. | ||
| ______________________________ | ______________________________ | |
| President of the Senate | Speaker of the House | |
| I certify that H.B. No. 581 was passed by the House on April | ||
| 24, 2025, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 0, 2 present, not | ||
| voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B. | ||
| No. 581 on May 28, 2025, by the following vote: Yeas 133, Nays 1, 2 | ||
| present, not voting. | ||
| ______________________________ | ||
| Chief Clerk of the House | ||
| I certify that H.B. No. 581 was passed by the Senate, with | ||
| amendments, on May 22, 2025, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays | ||
| 0. | ||
| ______________________________ | ||
| Secretary of the Senate | ||
| APPROVED: __________________ | ||
| Date | ||
| __________________ | ||
| Governor | ||
