The Supreme Court, in a ruling Friday, upheld a Texas law that required pornography websites to verify the age of their users, opening the door for states nationwide to place more restrictions on online content.
The 6-3 decision, with a majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, found that laws requiring age verification to access explicit online content do not overly burden the free speech rights of adults.
Thomas wrote that because the Texas law “simply requires proof of age to access content that is obscene to minors, it does not directly regulate the protected speech of adults.”
