Empowering parents—not government—to protect children online while preserving privacy, liberty, and opportunity.
Texas families face real and growing risks from social media, including addiction, cyberbullying, exposure to harmful content, and rising youth mental health challenges such as anxiety and self-harm.¹ Parents see these harms firsthand and want solutions that actually protect children—without sacrificing privacy, parental authority, or legitimate educational use of online platforms.
Recent legislative efforts have rightly focused attention on these dangers. However, blanket bans on minors and universal age-verification mandates for all users are an overly broad response. These approaches require mass data collection, create new cybersecurity risks, and routinely fail in practice as children bypass them using VPNs or fake accounts.² Texas can do better by strengthening parental authority, improving accountability, and addressing mental health needs—rather than expanding government surveillance.
The Issue
Social media’s harms are real and well-documented, but effective solutions must respect parental authority, protect privacy, and reflect how families and students actually use the internet.³ Platforms such as YouTube and search-based tools are widely used for research, learning, skill development, and entrepreneurship—especially by students pursuing STEM fields, trades, and creative work. Policies that fail to distinguish between harmful use and productive use undermine education while shifting responsibility away from parents and institutions.
The deeper challenge is not a lack of concern, but a failure of design. Policies that focus on restricting access rather than addressing behavior, incentives, and supervision assume perfect enforcement in a digital environment that adapts quickly. Children adjust faster than bureaucracies, while families are left exposed to new privacy and cybersecurity risks created by centralized data collection.
Parents know their children best. They deserve the tools, authority, and freedom to guide safe, responsible technology use—without unnecessary government interference.
Supporting Argument
Blanket restrictions chill free speech, burden innovation, and normalize mass data collection. They expand government power without meaningfully reducing harm. At the same time, they distract from a growing mental health crisis affecting many Texas children and families.
Restricting apps cannot replace early identification, counseling, and intervention for youth struggling with anxiety, depression, or self-harm. Texas must ensure that mental health resources are accessible and effective—particularly through schools and community partnerships. Schools also have a responsibility to provide appropriate supervision and respond when warning signs appear, rather than shifting the entire burden onto families.
A durable solution requires enforcing laws already on the books, strengthening parental control mechanisms, supporting mental health services, and promoting positive alternatives that reduce harmful use in the first place.
One such alternative is youth entrepreneurship and productive digital engagement. When young people use technology to build skills, create content, market ideas, and connect with mentors, social media becomes a tool rather than a trap. These activities build communication skills, foster pride through real achievement, and encourage healthier online habits rooted in purpose rather than passive consumption.⁶
What I Support
I support a disciplined, long-term approach that protects children while preserving parental authority, privacy, and constitutional limits.
- Strong parental control tools on devices, apps, and platforms—opt-in, easy-to-use features for monitoring, time limits, app blocking, and content filtering
- No forced data collection—expanding parental controls without requiring platforms to gather or retain additional personal information that increases breach or surveillance risks⁴
- Enforcement of existing law, including federal COPPA and Texas HB 18 (SCOPE Act), to hold platforms accountable for protecting minors from harmful content and predatory behavior⁵
- Expanded access to mental health resources for children and families, including school-based counselors, early intervention programs, and community partnerships
- Clear accountability for schools to ensure appropriate supervision and response when students show signs of mental distress, exploitation, or self-harm
- Digital literacy and online safety education that respects parental oversight and aligns with traditional Texas values
- Youth entrepreneurship and productive online activity that builds life skills, self-reliance, and responsible digital engagement
Why This Matters
Texas is built on individual liberty, family sovereignty, and opportunity. Protecting children should never require abandoning those principles. When policies prioritize surveillance over solutions, families lose control while harms persist.
For families—especially in fast-growing Denton County—the stakes are high. Parents want protection that works, mental health support when it is needed, schools that are accountable, and policies that prepare the next generation for success rather than dependency. Texas can meet this challenge with solutions that are effective, constitutional, and grounded in reality.
Rick Abraham’s Approach
I approach child online safety with three guiding principles: parents must remain in control, privacy must be protected, and policy must reflect technological reality.
As State Representative, I will pursue:
- Empowering parents with privacy-respecting tools to guide their children’s online activity
- Enforcing existing federal and Texas law before expanding new mandates
- Supporting mental health resources and school accountability as core child-protection measures
- Promoting education and entrepreneurship as preventative, skill-building alternatives
- Rejecting blanket bans and surveillance-based policies that fail in practice
Texas needs solutions that endure—not reactionary policies that create new problems. I will deliver a principled, long-term approach that protects children while preserving the freedoms that make Texas strong.
January 2026
Sources & Data
¹ U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health (2023).
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/youth-mental-health/social-media/
² Electronic Frontier Foundation — Analysis of age-verification mandates and circumvention.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/year-states-chose-surveillance-over-safety-2025-review
³ 2024 Republican Party of Texas Platform, Plank 17: Parental Rights.
Texas GOP.
https://texasgop.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-RPT-Platform.pdf
⁴ 2024 Republican Party of Texas Platform, Plank 57: Personal Data Privacy.
Texas GOP.
https://texasgop.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-RPT-Platform.pdf
⁵ Texas House Bill 18 (SCOPE Act), effective 2024.
Texas Legislature.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/HB00018F.pdf
⁶ Youth entrepreneurship and positive digital engagement resources:
Arizona State University Edson E+I Institute — Youth Entrepreneurship
https://entrepreneurship.asu.edu/programs/youth-entrepreneurship/
Kidpreneurs.org
https://kidpreneurs.org/
