Age-verification laws have popped up across the United States in the past few years, especially in the South. Typically, they require people to submit proof that they’re an adult if they visit a website where over a third of the content hosted is explicit. In January, the Supreme Court heard a case about the constitutionality of age-verification laws, and its decision will likely come down this summer.
That case, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, began as a challenge to Texas’s age-verification law specifically (but SCOTUS’s decision will have national ramifications). Coincidentally — or not — a bill calling for age verification for online sex toy sales has just been introduced in Texas, as well.
404 Media first pointed out that Senator Angela Paxton, wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, sponsors this bill. Ken Paxton is the Paxton in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton.
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The sex toy bill, S.B. 3003, proposes age-verification methods similar to those used by some states for porn sites, such as requiring users to submit a government-issued ID or using a third-party verification service. Violations of this would subject site owners to a $5,000 fee and a misdemeanor charge.
According to a recent study from New York University, age-verification laws don’t work. One reason is that if a site isn’t based in the U.S., it may not feel the need to comply. Another is that people can use a VPN to pretend to be in another location. Presumably, the same would be true for this bill.
But, as explained in Mashable’s rundown of age-verification laws, these laws aren’t just about preventing minors from accessing porn sites. They’re about reaching the true goal of Project 2025 (the conservative blueprint for Trump’s second presidential term), which is an outright ban on porn. One state, Oklahoma, has already introduced a bill to criminalize porn and imprison its creators.
Free speech advocates who have spoken to Mashable in the past say that the best way to actually prevent minors from looking at explicit sites is through device-level filters.
