US State Age Verification Efforts Threaten Online Speech and Privacy – The Supreme Court Seems Ready to Allow Them

The US Supreme Court recently weighed in on state age verification efforts, rewriting our ability to freely and privately access content online. In late June, the Court reversed decades of precedent in the Free Speech Coalition v Paxton decision to uphold Texas HB 1181. While the opinion narrowly approved age verification for sexual content online, the supporting language waved away privacy risks and seemed to create space for wider interpretations. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas found that “adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification.” At a time when states are testing the boundaries for online restrictions in the name of youth safety, this is a concerning message for the future of the free and open web.

Across the country, state legislators are age gating larger swaths of the internet, including app stores and social media. These laws may require the Supreme Court to further define when online age verification is constitutionally permissible—a decision that will impact how everyone, adult or minor, uses the web. Already in mid-August, on the heels of FSC v Paxton, the Court rejected an emergency appeal to block Mississippi’s social media age verification law. While Justice Brett Kavanaugh acknowledged in his concurring opinion that the law was likely unconstitutional, he found that the industry group NetChoice had not sufficiently demonstrated the need to block the law while the case played out. As a result, the social media platform Bluesky blocked services to Mississippi rather than submit users to identifying information requests or face fines for noncompliance.