US Supreme Court upholds Texas law requiring ID verification for porn sites
The United States Supreme Court has confirmed a Texas law which obliges users to access pornography sites to verify their age using a government identifier or a facial analysis.
The law of 2023 was disputed by Pornhub and other sites which argued that the requirement violated the constitutional rights of freedom of expression by imposing a burden on adults who wish to access this content.
Texas defended the law, saying that it had been created to limit damage to minors. More than a dozen other states have adopted similar laws.
In the end, the judges voted 6-3 according to ideological lines in a decision published on Friday.
“The power to demand the verification of age is from the authority of a state to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content,” wrote Judge Clarence Thomas, who is the author of the opinion.
During a two -hour hearing in January, the judges seemed to agree with Texas that a form of guarantees should be in place to protect minors, but they also expressed their concern about the trampling of rights to freedom of expression.
Lawyers for pornography websites in the case have mainly relied on a legal precedent in their arguments. They underlined a 2004 Supreme Court decision, which ruled against an attempt to criminalize the content on the Internet which could be harmful to minors.
They also argued that asking users to submit identification information can inadvertently prevent adults from accessing their websites, effectively hampering their first amendment rights.
“Adults who submit, for example, a” government identifier “on the Internet to” identify themselves affirmatively “understand that they are thus exposed to” disclosure, leaks or hacks inadvertently “, explained the adult film industry in their legal deposits.
Critics have also expressed their concern about whether the law could be used to restrict other types of content for adults.
Texas lawyers, on the other hand, looked at another legal precedent: a 1968 Supreme Court decision which confirmed a New York law prohibiting the sale of pornographic magazines to those who are minor.
State lawyers argued that the principles of this law have not changed “simply because obscenity has evolved online”.
After the decision, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton posted on X: “This is a major victory for children, parents and the ability of states to protect minors from the detrimental effects of online pornography.
“Companies are not allowed to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures,” he said.
Alison Boden, Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, the professional association of the adult entertainment industry behind the trial, said: “Pornography is once again the canary of the coal mine of freedom of expression.
“The government should not have the right to demand that we sacrifice our privacy and our security to use the Internet,” she said, adding that the law has historically failed “to protect minors.
