Perspective: Now is the time for Congress to protect all children from porn
July 10, 2025
Last month, the Supreme Court struck a blow against Big Porn. In a 6-3 vote, the court ruled in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton that a Texas law requiring age verification to access pornography sites is constitutional. This decision upholds statutes like Utah’s SB 287, as well as dozens of similar laws around the country. And it paves the way for federal legislation that would protect all children across the United States.
At the heart of the case was whether porn companies have an absolute right to feed their obscene content to children and whether digital age-verification is constitutional. Since the early days of the internet, the court has recognized a compelling government interest in protecting kids online. But a decade before the iPhone was invented, the court determined in Reno v. ACLU that filtering software was more effective at protecting kids and less burdensome on adults’ First Amendment rights than age-verification.
