{"id":196476,"date":"2025-01-14T15:33:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T20:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=196476"},"modified":"2025-01-14T15:33:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T20:33:25","slug":"supreme-court-may-decide-if-the-government-can-childproof-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/supreme-court-may-decide-if-the-government-can-childproof-the-internet","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court May Decide if the Government Can Childproof the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[1773,1764,1763,1783,1750,2024,1755,1753,2026,1768],"class_list":["post-196476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-aclu","metadata-advocacy-news","metadata-context","metadata-general-commentary","metadata-layout","metadata-length","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-plain-text","metadata-standard","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"standard","color_scheme":false,"header_image":196498,"mobile_header_image":null,"description":"In Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the court will hear arguments about whether a law that requires age-verification before accessing sexual speech online is constitutional. We are in court to protect free speech on and offline.","authors":[1903,196501],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"In <a href=\"https:\/\/action.freespeechcoalition.com\/age-verification-resources\/state-avs-laws\/\">almost<\/a> 20 states across the country, access to some of the most popular sites on the internet is cordoned off because the government doesn\u2019t like what they publish: sexual content. To get past the gate, users might have to show their driver\u2019s license, offer up financial information, or submit to a biometric scan, putting personal and identifying data in the hands of private actors that aren\u2019t always equipped to keep them safe. Even if users are willing to jump through these invasive, risky hoops, the sites may no longer function in the state. This is the new reality for many sites that publish sexual material online, including pornography, at least until the Supreme Court weighs in.\r\n\r\nYou might think this is a new issue, but it\u2019s not. The Supreme Court already decided it, more than 20 years ago, in cases litigated comprehensively by the ACLU and others. The Court said then that websites cannot be compelled to verify the age of their users.\r\n\r\nYet here we are again, thanks to a trend of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.them.us\/story\/pornhub-blocked-states-south-age-verification\">age-verification laws<\/a> around the country, including in Texas. These laws chill adults from accessing content online that they have a First Amendment right to see. And though proponents claim they protect minors, they don\u2019t: Texas\u2019 law, for instance, leaves precisely the same sexual content unregulated on search engines and social media platforms, and stands to push kids into darker corners of the internet. Such laws also degrade privacy and anonymity and threaten the free and open internet for everyone, regardless of age.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU has always defended people\u2019s right to access information, including sexual content, and pushes back against government regulations of speech that the government doesn\u2019t like. That\u2019s why we\u2019re joining the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart &amp; Sullivan and the ACLU of Texas at the Supreme Court on January 15 to demonstrate that Texas\u2019s age-verification law, HB 1181, demands rigorous scrutiny and is unconstitutional. Below, we break down how Texas\u2019s misguided attempt to child-proof the internet threatens all of our civil liberties."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What is HB 1181?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Texas\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/TX\/text\/HB1181\/id\/2819916\">HB 1181<\/a> became law in 2023. It requires all websites with \u201cover one-third sexual material harmful to minors\u201d to use \u201creasonable age verification methods\u201d to determine if their visitors are over the age of 18. As defined by the law, those methods must rely on a government-issued ID, like a driver\u2019s license, digital ID\u2013which Texas does not have\u2013or transactional data, like \u201crecords from mortgage, education, and employment entities.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cSexual material harmful to minors\u201d is a broad category encompassing anything that an average person would consider too sexual and too devoid of value for anyone under 18\u2013whether they\u2019re a toddler or a teenager.\r\n\r\nAs long as one-third of the content on a site qualifies, it doesn\u2019t matter how political, educational, or otherwise valuable the rest of the site is. It\u2019s like prohibiting minors from entering an entire bookstore or movie theater just because it carries adult books or shows R-rated movies. The law even puts educational websites that include sex ed materials or information about LGBTQ identities at risk.\r\n\r\nThe law also requires covered sites to prominently display \u201csexual materials health warnings\u201d penned by the Texas legislature, including the unscientific statement that pornography \u201cis proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function.\u201d (This requirement is currently enjoined as a result of the lower court rulings.)\r\n\r\nTexas has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/supreme-court-refuses-to-block-a-texas-law-requiring-pornographic-websites-to-verify-users-ages\">allowed<\/a> to implement most of the law, except for the health warnings. Websites that violate the law will be met with fines of up to $10,000 per day. And if a site allows a minor to access any prohibited sexual material, they can be fined an additional $250,000. Pornhub, one of the world\u2019s most-visited websites, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2024\/03\/14\/texas-pornhub-5th-circuit-age-verification-paxton\/\">stopped operating<\/a> completely in Texas because of the burdensome requirements."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"How Does HB 1181 Violate Our Rights?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"The law does very little to protect kids, but it does threaten all of our First Amendment rights, regardless of age. It reflects the government\u2019s distaste for specific topics and messages\u2013those about sex\u2013and so it has to pass a very strict test to satisfy the First Amendment. The government argues that the law just has to be reasonable since its goal is to protect kids, but accepting that argument could open the door to all manner of speech regulation. Pornography is often the canary in the coalmine when it comes to protecting free speech.\r\n\r\nWhile proponents of age-verification laws liken them to showing your ID before buying pornography in person, the reality of online age verification is much more invasive. In the physical world, age-gating is easy: To comply with laws that make it illegal to sell pornography to minors, employees can just see that a person is old enough to buy it, or they can glance at the person\u2019s birthday on their ID. The online version of this process is far more burdensome, time-consuming, and risky.\r\n\r\nUploading an ID, entering bank account information, or submitting to facial recognition technology specifically to access sexual content will make most people think twice, particularly when it means potentially creating a record of online activity that reveals our sexual preferences, interests, and questions. Laws like Texas\u2019s put adults one data breach away from having their sensitive information exposed to marketing companies, private actors, and even the government. Importantly, users who don\u2019t have the right proof-of-age, or who are improperly identified as minors, may be blocked from seeing the content altogether.\r\n\r\nIf Texas required people to prove their age before, say, reading Shakespeare, there would be no question that it would be violating the First Amendment. That this case is about sexual speech doesn\u2019t change that.\r\n\r\nForcing people to identify themselves to access information online threatens the internet\u2019s very spirit, and it compromises our rights to privacy and free speech without preventing children from accessing porn. In an age marked by data breaches and digital surveillance, linking your identity to your browsing history will inevitably discourage speech\u2014and if that is deemed okay for sexual content, it could keep spreading to any number of other topics or mediums. Several states have already passed similar laws restricting access to social media for minors, and if those regulations continue to pass, the future of the internet looks a lot more fenced in."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Why Doesn't HB 1181 Protect Kids?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Defining sexual material that is \u201charmful\u201d to minors \u2014 and even what counts as \u201cobscene\u201d for adults \u2014 is notoriously difficult to do. That <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/can-you-define-pornography-neither-can-the-government\">vagueness is also easy to abuse<\/a>, including to cut kids off from important information. Over the years, everything from books with LGBTQ characters to reproductive health information have been mislabeled by some as \u201cobscene\u201d and dangerous for minors to consume. Texas\u2019s law, and others like it, could make it easier to keep kids away from educational content\u2013and they would do it without actually blocking kids from seeing pornography.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s because, in light of the law's threshold and exemptions, it doesn\u2019t even reach social media and search engines\u2013the places where minors are most likely to encounter explicit content. The law explicitly exempts search engines, and its one-third threshold means that most major social media platforms aren\u2019t covered by it, even if they host comparable or even identical content to Pornhub.\r\n\r\nIn addition, this law could push kids towards websites that do not comply with U.S. law and may host more extreme content. As the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children wrote in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/23\/23-1122\/326643\/20240923151655244_ICMEC%20Merits%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf\">amicus brief<\/a>, this is how laws like HB 1181 \u201cexpose minors to separate risks, such as malware, trafficking, and predation.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd it's worth noting, as National Coalition Against Censorship does in its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/23\/23-1122\/326665\/20240923162258892_NCAC%20Amicus%209.23.24.pdf\">amicus brief<\/a>, that minors aren't monoliths. A teenager may well benefit from seeing content deemed inappropriate for a toddler, including in Texas, where the legal age of consent is 17. This law could make it so that it\u2019s legal for some minors to have sex in Texas, but not to learn about it online."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What Has the Supreme Court Said About Past Attempts to Burden Adults\u2019 Access to Sexual Content in the Name of Protecting Kids?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"This isn\u2019t a new issue. The ACLU and others litigated this exact same question\u2013whether the government can make a website liable for publishing sexual content without first verifying the age of visitors\u2013in the late \u201890s and 2000s, and we won.\r\n\r\nIn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/reno-v-aclu-challenge-censorship-provisions-communications-decency-act?document=reno-v-aclu-supreme-court-decision#legal-documents\"><i>Reno v. ACLU<\/i><\/a>, the ACLU challenged a provision of the Communications Decency Act that criminalized publishing \u201cindecent\u201d speech online if it was viewable by a minor. In its 1997 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/reno-v-aclu-challenge-censorship-provisions-communications-decency-act\">decision<\/a>, the Supreme Court held that the provision \"threaten[ed] to torch a large segment of the internet community\u201d by placing the \u201ctheoretical but unproven benefit of censorship\u201d above the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of adults.\r\n\r\nIn 2004, in <i>Ashcroft v. ACLU<\/i>, the Supreme Court struck down the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) which, among other things, made it a crime to knowingly post \u201charmful to minors\u201d content online without verifying the age of those trying to access it. The Court concluded that COPA, too, was likely unconstitutional because the government could achieve its child-protection goals without burdening the rights of adults.\r\n\r\nThese cases followed decades of Supreme Court opinions protecting adults\u2019 access to sexually explicit content even when the government argued restrictions were required to protect kids\u2013in everything from drive-in movies to cable TV to phone messages.<b><i> <\/i><\/b>\r\n\r\nToday the ACLU and our legal partners are building on this precedent to urge the Court to continue to protect our First Amendment rights online. More than two decades of precedent are at stake in <i>Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. <\/i>And there are other things at stake, too \u2014 a free and open internet and the future of speech both online and off."}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[148399],"issues":[46641,46759],"related_content_cases":"","related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court May Decide if the Government Can Childproof the Internet | ACLU<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the court will hear arguments about whether a law that requires age-verification before accessing sexual speech online is constitutional. 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