The United States Supreme Court ruled Friday to support Texas law requiring websites with “sexual material harmful to minors” to control the ages of all visitors. The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a commercial association for the adult industry, has brought the lawsuit against Texas General Prosecutor Ken Paxton challenging the state’s Verification Act.
Old checking in this context does not mean unknowingly clicking a box to state that you are an adult-it means uploading government documents or use third-party control platforms to prove your age.
This decision has great ramifications for online privacy. Eighteen states have Already adopted laws Demanding old monitoring to access such websites, while six more states approved legislation that has not yet been taken into effect. Under the Texas Law that the FSC challenged, a pornographic website is defined as having at least one third of its content considered “harmful to minors.”
Defenders of Internet Privacy have long criticized these Age controls For their potential to compromise the digital security of users, even when control companies promise not to retain identification information. In some cases, these age checks are made by government toolsand it is not abnormal For hackers to a breakdown Government databases.
In a moment when LGBT rights are under attack In the United States, activists have Protested Such laws as this could be used to classify non-pornographic information about the LGBT community, as well as basic sex education, to be “sex material harmful to minors.” These concerns seem well founded, considering that President Trump’s administration has Removed references to Civil Rights movements and LGBT history of some government sites.
The original Verification Age Age Act, HB 1181, was spent around the same time as the state imposed other legal restrictions on the LGBT community, including Boundaries to public drag shows and forbids Sex-asserting care for minors. The law of drag shows was later considered unconstitutional for violating the first amendment.
