Texas digital reality posture profile

Texas Synthetic Explicit Content law summary

In Texas, it is a crime to create or share a sexually explicit "deep fake" of a real person without their consent — a rule that started with video in 2023 (Penal Code 21.165, added by SB 1361) and, as of September 1, 2025, expanded to still images and AI-generated "deep fake media," including depictions with computer-generated intimate parts (SB 441). Separately, SB 1621 — signed June 20, 2025 and effective September 1, 2025 — rewrote the state's child-pornography statute (Penal Code 43.26) to explicitly reach a "depiction of a computer-generated child," meaning AI-created images that to a reasonable person are virtually indistinguishable from an actual child under 18. Based on public records, both non-consensual explicit deepfakes of real people and AI-generated child sexual abuse material are now covered by enacted, in-effect Texas law. Parents should note the child-material rule carries a rebuttable presumption that an image depicts a real child, which shifts to the defense the task of showing it was computer-generated.