Childhood development and safety experts have staked out opposing positions at the Supreme Court before arguments this week over Texas’ law requiring age verification to access online adult content.
The International Center for Missing & Exploited Children told the high court that the state law is not as effective as age verification measures on devices that shield dangerous material from minors.
“There is a better way to protect children from harmful content online: implementing age verification and filtering content directly on devices, rather than on websites,” the global nonprofit said in a court filing.
It said Texas’ law is “ineffective.”
“Such laws also chill children’s speech and their parents’ rights to make decisions on what their children see,” the filing reads.
Neurological and psychological experts told the justices that they support the state law. Medical research shows that pornography triggers a damaging imbalance in the adolescent brain’s ability to receive or process pleasure.
“Developing brains have unique, life-shaping capabilities to absorb information as the brain builds capacity and moves toward adult formulation,” their filing says. “But this formative season of adolescent brain development is also uniquely vulnerable to the pathologies of addiction.
“Childhood is thus the exact worst time for someone to be exposed to pornography,” the filing states.
Medical experts say free speech concerns of adults who experience a slight delay in accessing adult entertainment online because of entering identification proof “cannot be compared to the damage done to adolescent brains viewing pornography.”
The clash over how to best keep minors safe is coming before the justices on Wednesday in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton.
At issue is Texas House Bill 1181, which requires online adult content providers to implement age verification for access to their sites. When it enacted the measure in 2023, the state aimed to deter the flow of adult images and materials to youths under the age of 18. A violation of the law could cost a company more than $10,000.
The law requires consumers of adult content to enter a government form of identification to prove their age, but court records show companies are not allowed to retain the information.
Free Speech Coalition, a trade group for the adult entertainment industry, argues that the age verification process requires users to enter too much personal information.
Adult entertainment supporters say the Texas law violates the First Amendment.
“Americans hold a wide range of views about sexual content online. Some view it as offensive or indecent; for others, it is artistic, informative, or even essential to important parts of career and life. Consistent with the bedrock First Amendment principle that ‘esthetic and moral judgments about art and literature … are for the individual to make, not for the Government to decree,’” their brief reads.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told the high court that his state’s law is similar to regulations in other countries and that childhood access to adult material “is creating a public health crisis.”
“Through smartphones and other devices, children today have instantaneous access to unlimited amounts of hardcore pornography — including graphic depictions of rape, strangulation, bestiality, and necrophilia,” Mr. Paxton wrote in the Texas brief.
After a federal appeals court sided with Texas, advocates for the adult entertainment industry petitioned the high court.
A Justice Department filing asks the justices to vacate the lower court’s decision because the appellate court did not analyze the law with the utmost scrutiny, given the First Amendment concerns.
The high court is expected to hand down its decision by the end of June.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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