Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
In Texas, more than 830 new state laws went into effect on Monday. From healthcare to education to public safety, these hundreds of changes will touch nearly every aspect of Texans' lives, in ways big and small.
Sometimes, new laws can also bring about some unintended questions that lawmakers may not have considered when originally pushing a bill through the Legislature.
Take Senate Bill 20, which is designed to crack down on AI-generated child pornography in Texas. The new law passed earlier this year with overwhelming bipartisan support.
But now that it's on the books, some are wondering: Did Texas just open the door to making anime illegal?
Over Labor Day weekend, thousands gathered in San Antonio for the annual San Japan anime and gaming convention. The mood was jubilant as colorfully costumed crowds milled through acres of displays at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
But this year there was also a chill in the air because of Senate Bill 20.
The new law takes aim at AI pornography and creates a felony offense for the promotion of "obscene visual material" that appears to depict a child younger than 18 years old — whether it's an actual photo, an AI-generated image, or a cartoon or animation.
TPR spoke to a convention-goer who identified himself only as Lane, due to the sensitive nature of the subject.
"I completely understand, and I'm against minor pornography. I don't think any reasonable person would be for it," Lane said.
He's one of many fans who is wondering if anime could run afoul of the new law. The popular animation style originates in Japan and often features characters who have child-like qualities.
"I feel like there's a fine line that you have to walk with it, because especially in anime and video game culture, there's a lot of sexualization of women in particular—which is free speech," he said.
Lane noted that he's a First Amendment advocate, but he gets why Texas legislators wanted to put a stop to people creating imagery appearing to show those under 18 years of age.
Senate Bill 20 was authored by Sen. Pete Flores, a Republican. In passing it earlier this year, Texas Republicans and Democrats agreed that protecting children this way was a critical priority.
"Members it's a great honor to serve with you, to give this clear message to those that would prey upon our children, that the Senate says no," Flores said on the Senate floor.
Jon Taylor, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UT San Antonio Department of Political Science and Geography, said sometimes even straight-ahead attempts to do the right thing can have results many don't see until the dust settles.
"But here's the problem. In politics, we often run into what we call the law of unintended consequences," Taylor said. "One of those unintended consequences is what do you do with AI images, how they're generated, and do they fall within the concept or the idea of child pornography, particularly if you're creating images that are, say, anime … and I think that's where we're going to run into problems with this law."
Taylor said it'll be difficult to define the standard of what is considered to be obscene content under the new law. And the broad nature of SB 20 means it could, hypothetically, be used by local prosecutors to go after animated content, including anime, that some might find distasteful.
"It's in the eye of the beholder, some could argue. And I've seen enough anime on social media and other places," Taylor said. "I'm not a fan personally, but that's just me. But you see the images, you're thinking, 'okay, while it pushes the edge of the envelope, is this obscene material?' And I think that's where the real question comes into play. What are we going to do?"
Back at the San Japan Convention in San Antonio, another attendee named Savannah told TPR she supports the new law, but she also doesn't want to see anime get caught in the crossfire of Texas' quest to crack down on child pornography.
"You're opening the door for more banning, and then it might just end up with banning anime altogether," Savannah said.
She's also not against the idea that SB 20 could open the door to new regulation around anime.
"I think maybe censoring it or putting more restrictions about it would be good, but that depends on how you go about it," she said.
SB 20 just took effect on Monday. So, for now, how the law will be enforced is yet to be seen - and clarity on that could take a while. A person would first have to be arrested and charged for some sort of anime-related content. Then, the issue would be decided by the courts.
Copyright 2025 Texas Public Radio
