NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Tennessee law requiring pornographic websites to verify visitors’ age was largely blocked in court before it was set to take effect Jan. 1, even as similar laws took effect in Florida and South Carolina and remained in effect in more than a dozen other states.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman in Memphis ruled that Tennessee’s law would likely suppress the First Amendment free speech rights of adults without actually preventing children from accessing the harmful material in question. The state attorney general’s office is appealing the decision.
The Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment trade group, is suing over Tennessee’s law and those in a half-dozen other states. The coalition lists 19 states that have passed similar laws. One prominent adult website has cut off access in several states due to their laws.
Tennessee’s law requires porn websites to verify visitors are at least 18 years old, threatening felony penalties and civil liability for violators running the sites. Website leaders could not retain personally identifying information and would have to keep anonymized data.
The Free Speech Coalition and other plaintiffs sued, winning a preliminary injunction that blocks the attorney general from enforcing the law while court proceedings continue. However, the coalition expressed concern that private lawsuits or actions by individual district attorneys could be possible.
Judge Lipman wrote that parental controls on minors’ devices are more effective and less restrictive. She noted that minors could still access adult sites using VPNs or view pornographic material on social media sites, which are unlikely to reach the law’s threshold of one-third of its content considered harmful to minors.
The state and the adult industry responded. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office is asking the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to let the law take effect as the lawsuit proceeds. Skrmetti noted that other appeals courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have allowed similar laws to take effect.
The Free Speech Coalition has argued the law would be ineffective, unconstitutional, and force people to transfer sensitive information. The issue will hit the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments on Texas’ law next week.
A prominent adult website has cut off access in several states due to verification requirements, calling them “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.” Another age verification law is set to begin in July in Georgia.