Texas Porn Law Has a First Amendment Problem
The case before the Supreme Court requires a technical solution. Unfortunately the justices aren’t particularly good at those.
What does the First Amendment really say about pornography?
Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court held 5-4 that the government couldn’t block minors from accessing pornography by requiring websites to verify their users’ ages, because the requirement was unnecessarily restrictive compared to the alternative of filtering software. That decision gave rise to the contemporary reality of the internet, in which pretty much anyone, of any age, can have access to pretty much any sexually explicit content except child pornography.
Nevertheless, 19 states have recently enacted laws requiring sites that host adult content verify the age of visitors before allowing them access. Beneath the legal questions raised by the laws lies a deeper social issue: Are we OK with a world in which kids are pervasively exposed to pornography?