Regular Session
Government Affairs & Regulatory Compliance Analysis
SB20 fundamentally expands Texas penal code to classify AI-generated, animated, or synthetic obscene material depicting minors as a State Jail Felony, effective September 1, 2025. This legislation creates immediate criminal liability for AI developers, cloud hosts, and platforms that possess such data or use images of actual children to train generative AI models, regardless of when the data was originally acquired.
Sen. Peter Flores·Senate Bill·Regular Session
County and District Attorneys • Local Law Enforcement Agencies • Texas Department of Public Safety
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Key implementation requirements and action items for compliance with this legislation
JD Key Consulting specializes in Texas regulatory compliance strategy. Work directly with James Dickey—former Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas—to understand this bill's impact on your operations and develop an actionable compliance plan.
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This bill's path through the Texas Legislature
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Common questions about SB20
SB20 fundamentally expands Texas penal code to classify AI-generated, animated, or synthetic obscene material depicting minors as a State Jail Felony, effective September 1, 2025. This legislation creates immediate criminal liability for AI developers, cloud hosts, and platforms that possess such data or use images of actual children to train generative AI models, regardless of when the data was originally acquired.
SB20 was authored by Texas Senator Peter Flores during the Regular Session.
SB20 was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025.
SB20 is enforced by County and District Attorneys, Local Law Enforcement Agencies and Texas Department of Public Safety.
The regulatory priority for SB20 is rated as "critical". Businesses and organizations should review the legislation to understand potential impacts.
The cost impact of SB20 is estimated as "medium". This may vary based on industry and implementation requirements.
SB20 addresses topics including artificial intelligence, criminal procedure, criminal procedure--general, minors and minors--crimes against.
Key dates for SB20: Effective date is 2025-09-01. Consult with legal counsel regarding applicability.
SB20 establishes the following penalties: criminal penalty of State Jail Felony (180 days to 2 years confinement; up to $10,000 fine) for First offense: Knowingly possessing, accessing, or promoting obscene visual material appearing to depict a child (including AI/cartoons) OR using child images to train AI models.; criminal penalty of 3rd Degree Felony (2 to 10 years imprisonment; up to $10,000 fine) for Second offense (one prior conviction under this section or related obscenity statutes).; criminal penalty of 2nd Degree Felony (2 to 20 years imprisonment; up to $10,000 fine) for Third offense (two or more prior convictions).. Consult with legal counsel for specific applicability to your situation.
JD Key Consulting is an Austin, Texas-based government affairs firm led by James Dickey, former Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. We specialize in Texas regulatory compliance and legislative strategy for data centers, energy, banking, and manufacturing.
