Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to State Online Age Verification Laws

Several U.S. states have enacted legislation requiring adult entertainment websites to implement age verification systems, leading to legal challenges that will soon come before the Supreme Court. The high court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on January 15, 2025, regarding Texas’ age verification law, marking a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over digital identity verification requirements for online content access.

The Texas law, enacted in 2023, requires websites to verify users’ ages if at least one-third of their content is deemed “harmful to minors.” While a district court initially struck down the law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit later upheld the age verification requirements while invalidating mandated health warnings about pornography. The Supreme Court has allowed the law to remain in effect pending final appeal. This follows similar age verification mandates in European jurisdictions, where courts have ordered ISPs to block non-compliant websites.

Tennessee’s similar legislation, which would have taken effect January 1, 2025, was largely blocked by U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman in Memphis. Judge Lipman ruled that the law would likely suppress adults’ First Amendment rights without effectively preventing minors from accessing harmful material. The Tennessee attorney general’s office is appealing this decision. The ruling aligns with concerns raised by the Open Technology Institute about the limitations of current age verification technologies, particularly regarding facial recognition and digital ID systems.

Florida and South Carolina have implemented comparable age verification requirements, prompting some adult websites to cease operations in those states. Georgia is set to enact its own age verification law in July 2025. These state-level initiatives parallel broader national trends toward digital identity verification, including the Biden administration’s efforts to expand digital ID verification for federal programs.

The American Civil Liberties Union, a plaintiff in the Texas case, argues these laws could restrict access to information about sexual health, identity, and consent, along with other materials deemed inappropriate for minors. Their position reflects growing concerns about privacy and access rights in digital spaces, particularly as states implement various digital identity requirements.

In her ruling on the Tennessee law, Judge Lipman stated that parental controls on minors’ devices represent a more effective and less restrictive approach than mandatory age verification. Supreme Court Justice Thomas, in a related concurrence, indicated that such laws should be subject to strict scrutiny, suggesting potential constitutional concerns.

Sources: Route Fifty, Supreme Court of the United States, First Amendment Encyclopedia, Supreme Court of the United States, Law & Liberty

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January 13, 2025 – by Ji-seo Kim