Pornography Industry Loses To Texas In The US Supreme Court

The pornography industry has been battling with the State of Texas over House Bill 1181, the age verification law. Pornography companies have made a huge fuss, kicking and screaming on the way to being legally required to verify the age of visitors on their sites. As a result, Texas HB 1181 was referred to the US Supreme Court.

Texas HB 1181 is a very simple age verification bill that mandates websites with over a third of their content being pornographic institute some kind of age verification for users. The bill was authored by Representatives Shaheen, Schatzline, Collier, Ordaz, and Patterson, and was sponsored by Attorney General Ken Paxton. The bill passed without much opposition in the 88th legislative session and was made effective on September 1st of last year. 

Since the bill was signed into law, Attorney General Ken Paxton has been extremely effective at using it to help defend kids from the dangers of the internet. The AG first went after Aylo Global, the company that runs Pornhub. Aylo Global shut down its entire operations in Texas as a result. Paxton also recently reached a settlement with Multi Media LLC, another company that manages online adult content, forcing them to pay almost $700,000 to the state of Texas after finally agreeing to institute a reasonable age verification method. Texas’ new law has already had an immense positive impact on families across the state.

On Tuesday, April 30th, the US Supreme Court stated, “The application for stay presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.” With the denial to stay the case, Texas has officially won the war against predatory pornography companies.

The standard was set low by requiring “reasonable” age verification methods, yet companies still refused to adhere. It was a simple ask by Texans, and these companies’ responses speak volumes to their true motives. Their end goal is to get children addicted to pornography before their brain is fully developed, effectively creating a lifetime consumer base. They have zero regard for the well-being of Texans - they only care about profit and advancing their harmful content. Thankfully, we have pro-family fighters like Ken Paxton who will step in and put an end to the sexualization of children in Texas.

There is still much more to be done to fully address the pornography problem in Texas, but HB 1181 is a good start. While the use of pornography is obviously harmful to children, it is also detrimental to adults. More regulation is necessary to protect Texas families. The unfortunate truth is that children are the target audience for the adult content industry, and they will continue to prey upon the weak until real change is enacted. We must stay vigilant and protect children from the dangers of the internet.