The Dark Ages of Age-Verification

February 11, 2026

Last summer, the Supreme Court’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton weakened the First Amendment rights of adults, in the name of “protecting children.” Paxton centers on a Texas law that imposes an age-verification requirement on websites that contain “pornographic material.” Critically, as plaintiffs argued, the age-verification process involves security and privacy risks, which adult users must endure before accessing constitutionally protected speech. We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation supported the plaintiffs in this argument, including through filing an amicus brief.

Like most states, Texas does not have a state-recognized digital ID system; websites would need to contract with third-party companies to handle photos of physical IDs. There is no guarantee that third-party companies would not sell the data, nor that the data would not leak. To the Supreme Court, this apparently does not matter: it ruled 6-3 that age-verification laws are an appropriate way to regulate content for children without infringing on adults’ First Amendment Rights.

We at the Woodhull have dug into the many ways in which decisions like that in Paxton are wrong. Through researching the First Amendment, free expression, and sexual speech for Fact Checked by Woodhull, we have concrete information to discredit all the lies we’re fed about sexual freedom. Please register to join us on February 26, 2026 at 2:30 PM ET, for our Fact Checked Virtual Series entitled, “Checking the Facts: Free Speech Edition.”