Porn-Site Age Verification Law Upheld by US Supreme Court (1)

The US Supreme Court upheld a Texas law that requires porn sites to verify user age, rejecting arguments that the measure violates the speech rights of adults by requiring them to submit identification online.

Voting 6-3 along ideological lines, the court said the state was acting validly to protect children.

Texas is one of 24 states that have passed age verification laws for online porn since the beginning of 2023, according to the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that challenged the law. The Texas measure has already forced one of the biggest sites, Pornhub, to shut down in the state.

“The power to require age verification is within a state’s authority to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court’s majority.

The Supreme Court case tested the steps states can take to keep smut away from children amid widespread availability online.

The Free Speech Coalition argued the Texas law will deter adult viewers worried that their private information might be inadvertently exposed. The group also said the law is ineffective because it exempts search engines and social media sites that are replete with sexual material. The law applies to websites if more than a third of their content is deemed harmful to minors.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the law was a legitimate step to address the public health crisis of widespread access among children to hardcore pornography. Texas sought to extend a 1968 Supreme Court decision that said states could bar the dissemination of pornographic magazines to minors.

The Supreme Court last year refused to put the measure on hold while the legal fight went forward.

The case is Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, 23-1122.

(Updates with background on case, details from ruling.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth

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