Supreme Court upholds Texas law requiring age verification on porn websites

Those who visit sexually explicit websites will need to use government-issued identification or a "commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data."

Sites can perform verification themselves or through a third-party service.

They can also collect an additional penalty of up to $250,000 if any minors accessed the covered sexual material as a result of the violation.

Justices wrote in their opinion that internet access has drastically changed since 1999, when only two out of five American households had a computer. 

In 2024, 95 percent of American teens had access to a smartphone, with 93 percent reporting frequent internet use.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan argued speech that is obscene for minors is often not obscene for adults.

"So adults have a constitutional right to view the very same speech that a State may prohibit for children," Kagan wrote. "And it is a fact of life-and also of law-that adults and children do not live in hermetically sealed boxes. In preventing children from gaining access to 'obscene for children' speech, States sometimes take measures impeding adults from viewing it too-even though, for adults, it is constitutionally protected expression.

"But what if Texas could do better-what if Texas could achieve its interest without so interfering with adults' constitutionally protected rights in viewing the speech H. B. 1181 covers? That is the ultimate question on which the Court and I disagree."

Pornhub and other pornography giants have stopped service in Texas and other states where regulations are in place.

Verifymy, which provided an expert submission for the case as part of the Age Verification Providers' Association, reacted to the ruling by saying SCOTUS "cleared a key obstacle in the path to a safer internet."

"It will reassure parents across Texas about the type of content their children can access online and lay out a legislative blueprint for other states to follow to keep explicit material in the hands of adults only," Lina Ghazal, Verifymy head of regulatory and public affairs, wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Online platforms have been allowed to rely on users self-reporting their age for too long, leaving the door ajar for children to spaces they are not mature enough to navigate. Robust age checks are a common-sense safeguard that put the online and offline world on the same footing."

Pornhub did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.