Beginning next month, companies that distribute sexual materials online will be required to verify those accessing such material in Texas are at least 18 years old. The law, House Bill 1181, forces a “Texas Health and Human Services Warning” on all porn websites along with a process to verify someone’s age. The bill was signed into law by far-right Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in June. To verify their age, those accessing the porn sites will submit pictures of their photo ID, and provide facial scans, or other information. Pornhub and a group of other companies and individuals in the adult entertainment industry have sued Texas and argued that the impending law is a violation of the U.S. Constitution as well as the Communications Decency Act. The industry group leading the charge is the advocacy group The Free Speech Coalition. The complaint states the law uses the least effective and yet also the most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’ stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors. The groups say that minors could use VPNs or Tor to access the material anyway and that a better way of restricting such content to minors would be on-device content blocking. A similar requirement for age verification has gone up in Louisiana, where a legal challenge has also been brought against the state over it.
