TBU Supports Texas’ Age-Verification Law in Battle at U.S. Supreme Court

Tomorrow the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether pornography websites should be required to verify users’ ages in order to protect children from this harmful content. Under the Texas law, if “adult entertainment” makes up more than 30% of a website’s content, the website must verify a user’s age before allowing them to access the site. Them Before Us has filed an amicus brief in this case, urging the Supreme Court to uphold Texas’s age-verification law. Our brief demonstrates how the pornography industry harms children and urges the Court to keep common-sense, child-protective laws on the books.

The Free Speech Coalition, a group dedicated to defending the pornography industry, has challenged this law, claiming it violates free speech. Them Before Us’s amicus brief makes it very clear to the Court that this case is not about free speech. It is about protecting children from dangerous, obscene content that warps their understanding of healthy sexuality, normalizes violence, and preys on children. This commonsense law is a clear example of policy that puts children first and recognizes that adults’ desires should never come before the well-being of children.

Pornography is/has been used to groom children for sexual abuse. Even when a child does not face physical exploitation as a direct result of exposure to pornography, early exposure increases the likelihood that a child will engage in Problematic Sexual Behaviors (PSB) because it teaches children that the things they see on screen are normal. The content that a child would see if they accessed the homepage of the most popular pornographic websites is shockingly disturbing and violent. A child would not have to enter anything in the search bar to access content portraying gang rape, step-sibling and step-child incest, and strangulation. The average age of first exposure to these websites is 12 years old. This has real-world consequences—the first generation to grow up with access to online pornography has normalized sexual violence to the point that a 2022 study found that one-third of undergraduate women reported being choked by a partner in their most recent sexual encounter.

Utilizing the work of a former FBI agent, Them Before Us’s brief explains these consequences to the Court and describes what a child would encounter if they accessed the home page of one of these websites.

If you would like to read our brief, sign up here and we’ll send it directly to your inbox! Please be aware that the brief includes a redacted screenshot of the homepage of one of these sites, as well as redacted titles of the most popular videos and descriptions of the harmful behaviors normalized in these videos. Please be aware that the content of the brief is disturbing and is not suitable for young readers.