The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed Texas’s right to shield minors from the flood of pornographic content plaguing the internet.
The decision in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton (2025) upholds H.B. 1181, a Texas law requiring websites with substantial sexual content to verify users’ ages before granting access.
The Court, in a 6-3 decision led by Justice Clarence Thomas, rejected the radical left’s claims that the law violates free speech. The majority rightly recognized that protecting kids from harmful, sexually explicit content is a compelling state interest—one that outweighs the complaints of adult entertainment peddlers.
Texas’s law, which mandates age verification through government-issued ID or transactional data, was deemed a reasonable and tailored solution to a growing crisis.
“No person—adult or child—has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting proof of age. The power to verify age is a necessary component of the power to prevent children’s access to content that is obscene from their perspective,” Thomas wrote, brushing aside arguments from far-left activists who falsely claimed the law burdens adults’ rights.
He added that “H.B. 1181 simply adapts traditional age-verification requirements to the digital age.”
Justice Thomas added that requiring age verification online is no different than proving age to purchase alcohol, firearms, or lottery tickets. “Obscenity is no exception,” the Court ruled.
The dissent, penned by Justice Elena Kagan and joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson, predictably clung to an outdated view of the First Amendment.
Attorney General Ken Paxton released the following statement:
Attorney General Ken Paxton scored a major victory at the Supreme Court of the United States, successfully defending a Texas law that requires pornography companies to institute reasonable age-verification measures to safeguard children from obscene online material.
“This is a major victory for children, parents, and the ability of states to protect minors from the damaging effects of online pornography,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Companies have no right to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures. I will continue to enforce the law against any organization that refuses to take the necessary steps to protect minors from explicit materials.”
In 2023, pornography distributors sued Texas to stop the law. However, Attorney General Paxton won a major victory allowing Texas to enforce the statute while litigation continued. Now the Supreme Court has ruled that Texas’s age verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment and will remain in effect. Attorney General Paxton has already been aggressively enforcing the law, suing Aylo Global Entertainment, the operator of pornography websites including Pornhub. Instead of protecting children by instituting the required age verification, Pornhub opted to shut down its site entirely in Texas.
Companies violating the age verification requirements will be subject to fines of up to $10,000 per day, an additional $10,000 per day if the corporation illegally retains identifying information, and $250,000 if a child is exposed to pornographic content due to not properly verifying a user’s age.
MAJOR WIN: This is a major victory for children, parents, and the ability of states to protect minors from the damaging effects of online pornography. Companies have no right to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures. I will… https://t.co/43Q6q4leib
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) June 27, 2025
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