Relating to the creation of artificial sexual material harmful to minors.
CriticalImmediate action required
High Cost
Effective:2025-06-20
Enforcing Agencies
Texas Attorney General • Texas Civil Courts
01
Compliance Analysis
Key implementation requirements and action items for compliance with this legislation
Implementation Timeline
Effective Date: June 20, 2025
Compliance Deadline:June 20, 2025
*Critical Note:* This legislation passed with a supermajority, overriding the standard September 1 effective date. You must have protocols active immediately upon the effective date.
Agency Rulemaking: The Texas Attorney General is empowered to enforce immediately. While no specific rulemaking calendar is set, the AG will define "reasonable age verification" standards through enforcement actions and litigation starting in late June.
Immediate Action Plan
1.Technical Audit (Immediate): Test your AI tools. If they can generate nudity or sexual imagery based on a prompt, you are in scope.
2.Select Compliance Path: Decide immediately between Path A (Sanitize: Implement strict filters and ToS bans) or Path B (Gate: Implement mandatory ID verification).
3.Update ToS: Insert the mandatory prohibition language required by Section 129B.002(a-2)(1) before June 20.
4.Review Insurance: Consult your broker. Standard Cyber/E&O policies often exclude fines for "intentional acts" or regulatory non-compliance.
5.Purge Data: If you already collect age data, ensure your retention policies align with the new ban on keeping verification artifacts.
Operational Changes Required
Contracts
Terms of Service (ToS): You must amend your user agreements to explicitly prohibit the generation of "artificial sexual material harmful to minors." This is a prerequisite for the Safe Harbor defense.
Vendor Master Services Agreements (MSAs): If you utilize third-party age verification vendors, you must insert strict indemnity clauses. If the vendor retains PII in violation of the statute, your company is liable for the $10,000 per-instance fine. Ensure the contract assigns this liability to the vendor.
Cloud/API Licensing: If you provide the AI engine to other businesses, clarify in your contracts that the *client* is the "operator" responsible for the front-end verification or filtering.
Hiring/Training
Engineering/Dev Ops: Immediate allocation of resources is required to either:
1. Integrate "affirmative steps" (keyword blocking, image recognition filters) to prevent sexual generation; or
2. Integrate third-party identity verification APIs (e.g., ID.me, Veriff) into the user login flow.
Customer Support: Staff must be trained to handle user complaints regarding rejected prompts (if filtering) or privacy concerns regarding ID uploads (if gating).
Reporting & Record-Keeping
The "Anti-Retention" Mandate: You are legally prohibited from retaining the identifying information used to verify age. You must configure systems to receive a "Verified" token and immediately discard the underlying data (e.g., driver's license scans).
Safe Harbor Logs: If opting for the Safe Harbor, maintain technical logs proving your filtering systems are active and updated. These logs are your primary defense in court.
Consent Records: If you allow the generation of sexual material, you must maintain auditable records of express consent from every individual depicted.
Fees & Costs
Verification Costs: Expect to pay $1.00 - $3.00 per user verification if opting for the Age Gate path.
Civil Penalties:
$10,000 per day for operating without verification (if filters fail).
$10,000 per instance for retaining verification data.
$250,000 additional penalty if a minor accesses prohibited content.
Strategic Ambiguities & Considerations
"Recognizable as an Actual Person": The law applies to material recognizable as an actual person. It is unclear if this applies only to specific, real-world individuals (deepfakes) or if a photorealistic AI generation of a *non-existent* person counts due to its realism. *Operational Advice: Assume photorealistic generations of non-existent people are covered until case law clarifies.*
"Affirmative Steps" Efficacy: To claim Safe Harbor, you must take "affirmative steps" to limit creation. The statute does not define a required success rate. If your filter blocks 99% of prompts but 1% slip through, the AG may still argue non-compliance.
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Information presented is for general knowledge only and is provided without warranty, express or implied. Consult qualified government affairs professionals and legal counsel before making compliance decisions.
The use of a "deepfake" was first reported in 2017 when an anonymous Reddit user posted visually realistic videos featuring sexual material based on an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. As AI technology advances and becomes more accessible to the public online, the scope and proliferation of deepfakes with sexual material has increased, which could be particularly harmful to children. In fact, there has been a growing number of instances in which children have been victims of deepfakes created by their peers, as reported by NBC News and USA Today. H.B. 581 seeks to protect children against deepfakes and prevent their exploitation by requiring providers of websites or applications that create deepfakes harmful to minors to verify that the user is over 18 years of age and to ensure that the source of such a deepfake is at least 18 years old and consents to such use.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
H.B. 581 amends the Civil Practice and Remedies Code to require a commercial entity that operates a 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 to use reasonable age verification methods in order to verify an individual attempting to access the tool is 18 years of age or older. The bill prohibits such a commercial entity or a third party that performs the reasonable age verification methods from retaining any of an individual's identifying information.
H.B. 581 requires a commercial entity that operates a 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 to ensure that an individual used as a source for the material is 18 years of age or older and has consented to the use of their face and body as a source for the material. The bill extends to these provisions the applicability of the civil penalty scale for a civil penalty imposed for a violation of statutory provisions relating to the publication of material harmful to minors and to reasonable age verification methods.
H.B. 581 defines "artificial sexual material harmful to minors" as 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.
Texas HB581 imposes an immediate operational ultimatum on any business offering AI generation tools: you must either technically disable the ability to create sexual content ("Safe Harbor") or implement government-ID level age verification for all users. This law targets "deepfake" technology but captures broad commercial AI applications; failure to comply by June 20, 2025, triggers civil penalties of $10,000 per day. Implementation Timeline Effective Date: June 20, 2025 Compliance Deadline: June 20, 2025 Critical Note: This legislation passed with a supermajority, overriding the standard September 1 effective date.
Q
Who authored HB581?
HB581 was authored by Texas Representative Mary Gonzalez during the Regular Session.
Q
When was HB581 signed into law?
HB581 was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025.
Q
Which agencies enforce HB581?
HB581 is enforced by Texas Attorney General and Texas Civil Courts.
Q
How urgent is compliance with HB581?
The compliance urgency for HB581 is rated as "critical". Businesses and organizations should review the requirements and timeline to ensure timely compliance.
Q
What is the cost impact of HB581?
The cost impact of HB581 is estimated as "high". This may vary based on industry and implementation requirements.
Q
What topics does HB581 address?
HB581 addresses topics including business & commerce, business & commerce--trade practices, civil remedies & liabilities, minors and minors--health & safety.
Legislative data provided by LegiScanLast updated: November 25, 2025
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