Porn Prevails For Now: Judge Temporarily Stops Texas Porn ID

On September 1st, many new Texas laws went into effect, but just one day before these new laws were to be enacted, one Texas judge blocked one specific law!

House Bill 1181, which Gov. Abbott signed in June, would require age verification and a health warning for viewing porn websites. This meant that you would have to somehow provide actual proof that you are over the age of 18. This isn't the first time I've heard about this, not too long ago on the Morning Show, some of our New Mexico listeners had called in to tell us that there was already a law like that in place in the state.

Well, U.S. District Judge David Ezra found that the law actually violates First Amendment free speech rights. In his injunction, judge Ezra said:

The Court agrees that the state has a legitimate goal in protecting children from sexually explicit material online. But that goal, however crucial, does not negate this Court’s burden to ensure that the laws passed in its pursuit comport with established First Amendment doctrine.

While the new bill said that its main goal was to protect minors from sexually explicit content, Judge Ezra says that requiring proof is problematic and actually raises privacy concerns. And there's also the problem of the "warning" before you get to see your pornographic content.

There's so much to unpack from just this one bill which you can check out more of here. But while I do agree that minors should be protected from accessing porn content, my main problem is that social media sites are exempt from this bill- and trust me, there's lots to be concerned about on social media!

You can see more of the Texas laws that went into effect here.