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The internet has become an increasingly dangerous place for children. Pornography and other dangerous materials are on nearly every social media site and pornography sites are easy for anyone to access. Texas is leading the country in defending our children from these dangers.
In the last legislative session, Texas passed House Bill 1181. This bill would force any website with at least one-third of its content containing graphic material to implement a reasonable age verification method in order to keep children under 18 off of their site. The results of this bill have already been tremendous!
The largest pornography company in the country, PornHub, shut down all of its operations in the state of Texas as a result of this law. All we asked for was a reasonable age verification method and they refused! Clearly, the pornography industry wants children to be viewing their materials. Why? Because children are our most impressionable citizens. If they can influence them while they’re young, they will have lifelong customers.
Even though this law is already protecting millions of children, we want more this legislative session. The rule of one-third should be bumped down to 1%. This would require social media companies like Facebook and Instagram to keep porn off of their sites or require age verification to access them. This would greatly increase protections of the innocence of Texas children.
As soon as this bill became Texas law in 2023, the pornography companies sued the state. Attorney General Ken Paxton won a major case to enforce this law while litigation continued. The lawsuit eventually made its way to the Supreme Court of the United States. This past Wednesday, Texas went to defend this law. Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson presented great arguments as to why this law should remain law intact. Attorney General Ken Paxton was on site and stated, “We presented a strong argument today and I am confident that the Supreme Court will uphold the law’s constitutionality and side with Texas in protecting minors from harmful obscene content.”
Join us in thanking the Attorney General’s office for staying vigilant and implementing this law by signing our thank you card here! The Office of the Attorney General has been a faithful ally for Texas families. Stay tuned for more updates!