The US Supreme Court sided with Texas on Friday, upholding a state law that required pornography websites to verify users’ ages before granting access.
In a 6-3 vote, the court rejected a challenge from a pornography industry group that included sites like Pornhub, which claimed that the law violated the First Amendment by placing a “content-based burden” on adults’ access to protected speech.
The justices held that protecting children from online sexual content largely outweighed the burden that age verification — typically requiring government-issued identification — placed on adult users.
Critics of the law argued that such measures invaded privacy, could facilitate identity theft, and might drive porn sites to operate beyond the reach of US law.