Supreme Court upholds Texas law mandating age verification for porn sites
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Supreme Court upholds Texas law mandating age verification for porn sites
A Texas law that requires porn sites to verify that its users are at least 18 years old can remain in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday, June 27, that the law does not violate the Constitution. The law allows parents to sue websites if their child accesses pornographic material when the website was not complying with the age verification law. Texas is one of 24 states that has enacted age verification laws to access pornography on the internet in recent years.. The ruling sets nationwide precedent for lower courts reviewing legal challenges to laws in other states. The Free Speech Coalition called the Supreme Court’s ruling “the canary in the coal mine of free expression.” The National Center on Sexual Exploitation said the free speech argument “defied common sense,” noting that identity and age verification are regular parts of most people’S lives. The pornographers, through their trade association called the Free Speech coalition, have been engaged in lawsuits against other states that require age verification.
A Texas law that requires porn sites to verify that its users are at least 18 years old can remain in effect after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday, June 27, that the law does not violate the Constitution.
In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s majority found that Texas is within its authority “to shield children from sexually explicit content” and that this authority “necessarily includes the power to require proof of age” to access pornographic material.
“Unlike a store clerk, a website operator cannot look at its visitors and estimate their ages,” the opinion continued. “Without a requirement to submit proof of age, even clearly underage minors would be able to access sexual content undetected.”
Texas is one of 24 states that has enacted age verification laws to access pornography on the internet in recent years. The ruling sets nationwide precedent for lower courts reviewing legal challenges to laws in other states.
According to Texas law, a website must verify the ages of all users if “more than one-third of [the website’s content] is sexual material harmful to minors.” The law allows parents to sue websites if their child accesses pornographic material when the website was not complying with the age verification law. The law does not permit pornographers to retain personal information after the verification is complete.
The law also imposes fines of up to $10,000 per day on websites in violation of the law and an additional $250,000 fine if a child is exposed to pornographic content because the website was not verifying the ages of its users.
“This is a major victory for children, parents, and the ability of states to protect minors from the damaging effects of online pornography,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
“Companies have no right to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures,” he added. “I will continue to enforce the law against any organization that refuses to take the necessary steps to protect minors from explicit materials.”
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Pornographers sued Texas in 2023 shortly after the state enacted the law, asserting that the age verification rule places a burden on adults who are trying to access pornographic material and violates their First Amendment right to access speech. The pornographers, through their trade association called the Free Speech Coalition, have been engaged in lawsuits against other states that require age verification.
In a statement on X after the ruling, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden called the Supreme Court’s ruling “the canary in the coal mine of free expression.” She called the decision “disastrous for Texans and for anyone who cares about freedom of speech and privacy online.”
The court was not convinced by that argument.
In the opinion, Thomas wrote that the law “is simply to prevent minors” from accessing content — not adults. The ruling acknowledges that the law creates a burden on adults but calls the burden “incidental” and found that “adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification.”
“An age-verification requirement is an ordinary and appropriate means of enforcing an age limit, as is evident both from all other contexts where the law draws lines based on age and from the long, widespread, and unchallenged practice of requiring age verification for in-person sales of material that is obscene to minors,” the opinion read.
Dani Pinter, who serves as senior legal counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), told CNA that the free speech argument “defied common sense,” noting that identity and age verification are regular parts of most people’s lives.
Prior to states passing age verification laws, Pinter said very few pornographic websites had any type of age verification. She said “many don’t do anything at all” and some simply ask a user to “click a box that says you’re 18 or older.”
“Virtually no pornography website restricts minors,” she said.
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Even in states that have adopted age verification laws, Pinter warned most websites “have not been compliant” but that some websites have “just withdrawn from the states” altogether. She said she hopes the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the constitutionality of the law will bolster compliance and lead to more states — or even the federal government — passing similar laws to protect children online.
The ruling, Pinter said, is “very historic” and “spells a new era where there is now a path forward to protect kids online.”