Federal Judge Blocks Texas Law Requiring Age Verification, Filters

A federal judge issued a last-minute partial block on a Texas law that would require some large web services to identify minors and filter what they see online. Called HB 18 or the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, it was signed into law last year and was set to take effect over the weekend on September 1, but a court ruling determined that the “monitoring and filtering” requirements posed a significant threat to online speech.