The Supreme Court Needs to Uphold Critical Age Verification Law to Shield Kids from Sexually Explicit Content
 

Today, the United States Supreme Court has an historic opportunity to profoundly impact the lives of America’s youth by protecting them from the evils of online sexual exploitation. By upholding Texas’ age verification law in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, 23-50627 (5th Cir. 2024), the Supreme Court can protect the innocence and dignity of countless children.  

The multi-billion-dollar pornography industry would have the Court believe that preventing children from accessing sexually explicit content via a simple verification of one’s age would overly burden consenting adults and violate their First Amendment rights. This is the same age old “privacy” argument that was used by the ACLU, the Free Speech Coalition and the American Library Association in the nineties. The Supreme Court, legislators, the media and the public should not be deceived by their dishonest tactics!  Obscene content that meets the three prong standard  pursuant to Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), is illegal under U.S. federal law and has no protection under the First Amendment. Title 18 U.S.C. Chapter 71 §§1460-1470, prohibits distribution of such obscenity, including via the internet and other digital means.

For over three decades, Enough Is Enough^® has fought for common sense age verification laws as an effective tool in the fight to protect children from exposure to  both soft-core material (broadcast indecency and harmful to minors content), hard-core prosecutable obscenity and child pornography, and the trauma that results from exposure to such toxic material. 

Age verification is still used as an effective shield to protect minor children from pornography in print, television and broadcast. For instance, a consenting adult can buy a Penthouse magazine or rent an X-rated video, but a minor child cannot.  Age verification is also required to obtain a driver’s license, buy alcohol and cigarettes, legally vote, and serve in our nation’s military.  Certainly, this same standard of care should be applied to protecting our most vulnerable citizens- namely children- which is why, today, we call upon the Supreme Court to uphold Texas’ age verification law and establish a path forward for all states to take similar action.

Yet, for decades, the pornography industry has been given a free pass to distribute obscene content online accessible to anyone, including children, thus profiting from the distribution of this illegal content while knowingly and blatantly breaking federal obscenity laws that have gone largely unenforced since George W. Bush was president.  In 1996, Congress enacted the Communications Decency Act (CDA) seeking to regulate obscene and indecent content online. And while, in Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 (1997), certain aspects of the CDA were found to infringe upon free speech, the Supreme Court did recognize that “Transmitting obscenity and child pornography, whether via the Internet or other means, is already illegal under federal law for both adults and juveniles.”  Further, as the state of Texas has correctly argued in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the Supreme Court has consistently recognized that Congress has a ‘‘compelling government interest’’ to protect the physical and psychological well-being of minors, which includes shielding them from indecent and obscene content.

Since the 90s, social media has exploded onto the scene and the laws on the books need to be updated to protect the millions of American children who are using these platforms, As the world grows increasingly reliant upon a variety of digital devices including cell phones, tablets, and gaming devices, children grow increasingly vulnerable to online risks.  Forty- three percent of kids aged 8-12 own a smartphone (57% a tablet) and of kids aged 13-18, 88% own a smartphone (36% a tablet). Ninety- five percent of 13–17-year-olds use social media. With this explosion in the use of such devices, evolving social media and app platforms, and expanded public Wi-Fi availability, children and teens have easy, free and unrestricted access to prosecutable obscenity like hard-core, extreme content depicting graphic sex acts, rape, strangulation, and violence; even material depicting the sexual abuse or rape of a child.

Peer-reviewed research and medical science shows that internet pornography is a fueling factor in the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. Seventy- three percent of teens age 13 to 17 have watched pornography online—and more than half (54%) reported first seeing pornography by the time they reached the age of 13. The exposure of children to internet pornography is harming their developing brains. “Pornography consumption is associated with decreased brain volume in the right striatum, decreased left striatum activation, and lower functional connectivity to the prefrontal cortex.”

Despite what the pornography industry says, age verification technologies have improved throughout the years and are effective tools in the fight to protect children from the evils of pornographic online content. To date, 19 states have enacted age verification laws, with potentially more to follow.  It is our hope the highest court in the nation upholds the very laws designed to safeguard the precious innocence of our most vulnerable citizens, our children…. America’s future.