A federal judge in Texas has blocked a state law seeking to impose age requirements on adult websites, claiming the bill violates the First Amendment and is a threat to privacy.
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“The Court finds that H.B. 1181 is unconstitutional on its face,” senior U.S. district judge David A. Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas wrote in the ruling.
“The statute is not narrowly tailored and chills the speech of Plaintiffs and adults who wish to access sexual materials … And the law is not narrowly tailored because it substantially regulates protected speech, is severely underinclusive, and uses overly restrictive enforcement methods.”
The court agreed that the state of Texas has a “legitimate” goal in protecting children from explicit sexual material online. However, such goals do not negate the court’s burden in ensuring that laws passed by the state comply with the First Amendment, the judge wrote.
“There are viable and constitutional means to achieve Texas’s goal, and nothing in this order prevents the state from pursuing those means.”
Judge Ezra also pointed to privacy concerns regarding age verification requirements. One of the two permissible mechanisms for age verification under HB 1181 is through government ID.
“Privacy is an especially important concern under HB 1181, because the government is not required to delete data regarding access,” the court stated. “People will be particularly concerned about accessing controversial speech when the state government can log and track that access.”
Judge Ezra stated that by verifying age through government identification, HB 1181 will essentially allow the government to gain access to “the most intimate and personal aspects” of people’s lives.
The bill presents a risk of the state being able to monitor when adults view sexually explicit materials and the kind of websites they visit, he noted.
Warning Labels, Fines
In addition to age verification, HB 1181 also requires porn websites to display health warnings on their landing pages.The message, to be attributed to the Texas Health and Human Services, must say that pornography is “proven to harm human brain development,” “is associated with low self-esteem and body image, eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses,” and may increase the “demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography.”
Judge Ezra stated in his ruling that although these warnings carry the label of Texas Health and Human Services, the agency appears to have “not made these findings or announcements.”
The law would also impose a penalty of $10,000 per instance "when the entity retains identifying information."
In addition, if the entity’s failure to implement age verification results in one or more minors accessing harmful sexual material, an additional amount of up to $250,000 could be levied.
The amount of civil penalty levied will depend on factors like the seriousness of the violation, whether the entity knowingly committed the violation, and the history of previous violations.
Response to Court Decision, Sexual Agenda
Judge Ezra’s injunction against HB 1181 was welcomed by FSC, with executive director Alison Boden calling it a “huge and important victory against the rising tide of censorship online."“We’re pleased that the Court agreed with our view that HB1181’s true purpose is not to protect young people, but to prevent Texans from enjoying First Amendment protected expression. The state’s defense of the law was not based in science or technology, but ideology and politics,” she said in a release on the organization's website.
The state attorney general's office immediately filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Watchdog groups warn that it's part of an effort to lower the accepted age of consent for children to have sex.
The organizations pushing the agenda—International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations—are advancing the sexual agenda on two fronts.
On one side, these groups promote sexual education to children, including teaching them about consent for sex. On the other hand, they are attempting to portray children as “sexual beings” with sexual rights.
"There is a common misconception that young people are not, or should not be sexual beings, with the exception of certain groups, such as married young people or young people above a certain age," the document, entitled "Exclaim!" states.
“It is important for all young people around the world to be able to explore, experience, and express their sexualities in healthy, positive, pleasurable, and safe ways.”
The document insists that children can make decisions about sex free from parental “interference.”
