The Supreme Court is Tightening Age Verification Rules for Porn Sites

The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the states in a case challenging the constitutionality of age verification requirements for adult entertainment websites.

On April 30, the justices dismissed an emergency appeal seeking to block age verification mandates outlined in Texas House Bill 1181. The bill imposes fines and liability on website owners who allow minors to visit their sites, including a minimum fine of $10,000 and a maximum fine of $250,000 per violation by a minor. The appeal was filed by the Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry advocacy group.

Age verification bills, also known as “porn pass” laws, will require websites that host a certain percentage of adult content to adopt commercial age verification systems (AVS) to keep out minors. These gates require users to present government-issued identification to prove they are over 18 years old. In the eyes of advocates, clicking “I’m over 18” isn’t enough.

Texas’ bill applies to websites where “one-third” of posted content contains “sexual material harmful to minors,” but other states set a number of rules and regulations. A Utah bill requires an AVS for websites with a “significant amount” of pornographic content. Virginia law requires verification of state-issued IDs or biometric scans and requires users to use age verification software for adult websites with “harmful” content. In the case of Texas and others, states have also introduced requirements that adult websites post warnings to users, including that porn can be addictive.

Aside from the outcry from free speech groups and investors in the adult entertainment industry who call such requirements a form of “intrusive government oversight,” experts generally believe age verification bills won’t work. “These laws are hard to enforce and easy to circumvent,” Mashable’s Anna Iovine reported last year amid a wave of state bills. “These draft laws … have the potential to become an online privacy and censorship nightmare that harms sex workers and other internet users.”

Experts worry that such a cascade of state-level laws, each with sporadic requirements, would push young people toward more harmful and dangerous websites, put users at risk of identity theft and set a precedent for a less accessible Internet. Others say this is not the most effective way to protect children from explicit online content.

Additionally, draft age verification laws have been proposed by Big Tech executives as a solution to a variety of digital problems, including the mental and emotional well-being of young people on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.