Texas Sued Over Age Verification Law And Porn “Public Health Warnings”
The state of Texas was sued in a federal district court by the Free Speech Coalition, a trade group representing the adult entertainment industry, and a slate of other companies including subsidiaries of Canadian firm MindGeek (owner of Pornhub). Other plaintiffs include the parent companies of popular adult sites like XVideos and Bang Bros, and a Jane Doe" representing the adult content creator community. The lawsuit is seeking to block the implementation of House Bill 1181, a measure that would implement mandatory age verification and require porn sites to plaster public health" warningsas if users are trying to access a beer or e-cigarette website.
Not going to lie, this is embarrassing to see. I was born in the fascist shitshow called Texas.
In a statement sent to the news media a few short hours ago, Free Speech Coalition executive director Alison Boden said that they are standing up not only for the rights of adult businesses and creators, but for the rights of adult Texans to access legal content in the privacy of their own home, without having to submit to surveillance or propaganda." Boden is right to make this characterization about the law in question. House Bill 1181 is attempting to push a claim that pornography addiction is a public health crisis, a popular talking point among conservatives.
The science suggests otherwise. In one of my rants on House Bill 1181 from a few weeks ago, neuroscience academic Nicole Prause told methat the sentiments behind the law are based on flawed data and pseudoscientific assumptions. Porn addiction isn't recognized by major medical associations, including the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA points out that porn addiction isn't an addiction" and is simply a case of compulsive behavior that is extremely treatable. The American Psychiatric Association also declared that there is little evidence to support a diagnosis of sex addiction or pornography addiction. Sex addiction isn't named in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition(DSM-5).
However, House Bill 1181 requires adult websitesto publish warnings from the Texas Health & Human Services Commission (Texas HHS) falsely linking pornography consumption to human trafficking, child sexual abuse and exploitation, and an array of mental health disorders. Additionally, the law would require site owners to plaster the crisis hotline for the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on their sites. Legal counsel for the plaintiffs points out that neither agencies offer or are equipped to handle services related to so-called porn addiction.
There is no indication that anyone calling this helpline looking for information about any effects of pornography will receive it there," reads the complaint, referencing SAMHSA's website. Also, it requires age verification for users looking to access adult content. These provisions are also products of the trend of state-level legislation adopted by Republican-controlled legislatures who assert that age verification mandates are critical to blocking access to age-restricted content from minors. Case law begs to differ. Age verification and restricting minors are simply the paint on the crumbling facade. Age verification is textbook censorship and surveillance. Requiring adults to submit their government identifications, credit card numbers, or other personal info is a real turn-off. It's also potentially unconstitutional and risks data bloat, information assurance and security, and could be used as an intervention to censor protected forms of online expression.
The Free Speech Coalition filed lawsuits against the governments of Utah and Louisiana, too. But, a federal district judge in Utah just dismissed the lawsuit there because the age verification law is considered a bounty" law, per the recent words of the illustrious dear leader of Techdirt. A bounty law essentially allows private citizens to enforce the age verification measure through litigation. Due to this, the judge ruled that the coalition has no grounds to sue state officials, such as the attorney general, because they're not the ones who are attempting to enforce the requirements for age verification. The law grants citizens the right to sue and offers the suing citizens a reward, of sorts, if the suit is successful. Take ADA trolls, for example. Even when the underlying laws may sound sensible, giving anyone who takes anyone else to court the ability to profit from it leads to widespread abuse," Masnick explained.
Another well publicized example of a bounty law can also be found in, you guessed it, Texas! Texas Monthlypublished a column by contributor Dan Solomonabout the abortion ban implemented by the state legislature through Senate Bill 8 in 2021. Senate Bill 8 allows anyone who is aware of an abortion occurring in the state to sue anyone who aids or abets" said procedure. One Dr. Alan Braid was sued in a San Antonio state court but the lawsuit against the doctor was tossed on the grounds that the writers of the law, far-right Texas Republicans, could attack freedoms by way of an invasive civil proceeding. This sort of bounty law didn't hold up. The age verification case in Utah is likely to be appealed but there needs to be an attempt by a private citizen to enforce the action against a company like MindGeek or something like that.
The Texas age verification law, however, empowers the attorney general to enforce such a measure through civil penalties. This gives impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his office the ability to sue companies that refuse to comply with the built-in idiocy behind something as overreaching as House Bill 1181 and means that Texas won't be able to dodge this lawsuit in the same manner as Utah.
Grab your popcorn because this lawsuit is also a harbinger of what is about to come (no pun intended). Pornhub's portfolio of websites has geo-blocked IP addresses in Utah, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Virginia. They adopted the LA Wallet verification method in Louisiana but they ended up losing over 80 percent of their local traffic. Despite my contacts at Montreal-based MindGeek and the company's ownership group, Ethical Capital Partners in Ottawa, declining to comment on a geo-block on a state with a population greater than all of Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia combined, Texas is very likely to be the next U.S. state to see its access to Pornhub restricted if no injunction is granted preventing the law from going into effect. The blockbuster is definitely the lawsuit in Austin right now but when Sept. 1 comes along, if House Bill 1181 enters into force, nearly 30 million Texans will not be able to watch their favorite Pornhub scenes (without using a VPN, of course).
Michael McGrady is the contributing editor at AVN.com.
Disclosure: The author is a member of the Free Speech Coalition, He was not compensated by the coalition, its officers, or members to write this column. He's just pissed off about HB 1181.