New Texas Laws You Need To Know By September 1st

Three new Texas laws will take effect beginning September 1st. Here's your chance to review them so you don't break one without realizing it!

Let's start with House Bill 18.

This bill requires digital service providers, like social media platforms, to register a user's age before allowing them to make an account. It also says that social media companies must have permission from the parents of minors before an account can be created.

A parent or guardian must sign a consent form, call a toll-free line, or participate in a video call so that companies may collect the information for their government-issued identification.

The digital providers will also have to treat the minors using their services as known minors, which means they must exercise care to prevent developmental, emotional, and physical harm. Parents will also have full access to the digital services associated with their minors and will be able to submit a request to attain their child's online information.

Long gone are the days of flirting with adult men in chatrooms when you're only 11 years old and that's a good thing. My friends and I had no business being online in some of the places we found ourselves in the early 2000s...

Next on the list, is Senate Bill 1841.

This bill requires the Human Resources Code to make updates to provisions that relate to various contracts between the Health and Human Services Commission and family violence centers. For a family violence center to be eligible for a contract with the state, it must demonstrate it is using a trauma-informed and voluntary advocacy service model, like offering services for parents and children or offering temporary lodging.

The bill also requires that anyone in a family violence program must voluntarily participate in programs to receive shelter, instead of participation being a requirement.

And, last but not least, mountain lion hunting...

Canned hunting for mountain lions, which involves trapping them and then releasing them into an enclosed area for hunting, will no longer be allowed. This grants protection for mountain lions in Texas.

Keep scrolling for more Texas-based content in the galleries below...