Online Age-Check State Laws Run Into Constitutional Headwinds

Federal courts in two states recently paused the enforcement of laws requiring individuals to verify their age in certain online settings, in back-to-back decisions that complicate the policy debate swirling around how best to protect children online without running afoul of the US Constitution.

Litigants in Arkansas and Texas recently won temporary injunctions that halted enforcement of new laws mandating age-verification on certain social media platforms and on websites containing adult content, respectively. In both decisions, federal judges were convinced by initial arguments that the laws burdened access to free speech in violation of the First Amendment.

The individual court ...