{"id":53122,"date":"2025-11-07T17:40:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/?p=53122"},"modified":"2025-11-07T17:40:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:40:56","slug":"supreme-court-upholds-texas-law-mandating-age-verification-for-porn-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/nl\/learn\/supreme-court-upholds-texas-law-mandating-age-verification-for-porn-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooggerechtshof handhaaft Texas-wet die leeftijdsverificatie voor pornosites verplicht stelt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n null \/ Credit: New Africa\/Shutterstock<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 \/ 15:22 pm (CNA).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In het a 6-3 decision<\/a> written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court\u2019s majority found that Texas is within its authority \u201cto shield children from sexually explicit content\u201d and that this authority \u201cnecessarily includes the power to require proof of age\u201d to access pornographic material.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike a store clerk, a website operator cannot look at its visitors and estimate their ages,\u201d the opinion continued. \u201cWithout a requirement to submit proof of age, even clearly underage minors would be able to access sexual content undetected.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to Texas law<\/a>, a website must verify the ages of all users if \u201cmore than one-third of [the website\u2019s content] is sexual material harmful to minors.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major victory for children, parents, and the ability of states to protect minors from the damaging effects of online pornography,\u201d Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton zei in een verklaring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies have no right to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures,\u201d he added. \u201cI will continue to enforce the law against any organization that refuses to take the necessary steps to protect minors from explicit materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In het a statement on X<\/a> after the ruling, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden called the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling \u201cthe canary in the coal mine of free expression.\u201d She called the decision \u201cdisastrous for Texans and for anyone who cares about freedom of speech and privacy online.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court was not convinced by that argument. <\/p>\n

In the opinion, Thomas wrote that the law \u201cis simply to prevent minors\u201d from accessing content \u2014 not adults. The ruling acknowledges that the law creates a burden on adults but calls the burden \u201cincidental\u201d and found that \u201cadults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn 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,\u201d the opinion read.<\/p>\n

Dani Pinter, who serves as senior legal counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), told CNA that the free speech argument \u201cdefied common sense,\u201d noting that identity and age verification are regular parts of most people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Prior to states passing age verification laws, Pinter said very few pornographic websites had any type of age verification. She said \u201cmany don\u2019t do anything at all\u201d and some simply ask a user to \u201cclick a box that says you\u2019re 18 or older.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVirtually no pornography website restricts minors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Even in states that have adopted age verification laws, Pinter warned most websites \u201chave not been compliant\u201d but that some websites have \u201cjust withdrawn from the states\u201d altogether. She said she hopes the Supreme Court\u2019s confirmation of the constitutionality of the law will bolster compliance and lead to more states \u2014 or even the federal government \u2014 passing similar laws to protect children online.<\/p>\n

The ruling, Pinter said, is \u201cvery historic\u201d and \u201cspells a new era where there is now a path forward to protect kids online.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/265061\/supreme-court-upholds-texas-law-mandating-age-verification-for-porn-sites<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

null \/ Credit: New Africa\/Shutterstock Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 \/ 15:22 pm (CNA). 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. [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":68587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-53122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news"],"mb":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/christianpure.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Supreme-Court-upholds-Texas-law-mandating-age-verification-for-porn-sites.webp?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5997,"url":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/nl\/learn\/texas-supreme-court-upholds-ban-on-transgender-procedures-for-minors\/","url_meta":{"origin":53122,"position":0},"title":"Texas Supreme Court upholds ban on transgender procedures for minors","author":"Christian Pure Team","date":"juli 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"[ad_1] Source null \/ Credit: J.J. 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