US Supreme Court Upholds Texas Porn ID Law

Economic and Practical Effects

• Many expect the law to push users to non-compliant foreign sites and VPNs, harming US‑based and especially small, independent adult businesses that can’t afford compliance and will resort to state‑by‑state blocking.
• Some argue Texas politicians don’t care if they destroy in‑state adult work; driving independent creators out is seen as a feature, not a bug.
• There’s debate on how enforcement would work (IP/DNS blocking vs. site self‑blocking); broad DNS/NS blocking is called technically overbroad and legally risky.

Censorship, Scope Creep, and “Obscenity”

• Commenters repeatedly compare this to building a “Great Firewall of Texas.”
• A major thread disputes whether “obscenity” is defined clearly enough (via the Miller test). Some say it’s workable; others say concepts like “average person” and “community standards” are inherently arbitrary and easily abused.
• Strong concern that once age‑gating is accepted for porn, states can relabel LGBTQ content, sex education, reproductive health info, or even dissident politics as “sexual” or “harmful to minors.” Several link this trajectory to other recent rulings and long‑term culture‑war projects.

Constitutional and Legal Concerns

• Multiple comments frame this as part of a pattern where courts tolerate obviously overbroad, likely unconstitutional laws.
• One cited critique of the Court attacks the notion of “partially protected” speech as a way to hollow out the First Amendment whenever politically convenient.

Privacy, Data, and Verification Technology

• Comparison to ID checks for R‑rated movies is challenged: theaters historically don’t build detailed identity databases; online verification plus modern tracking makes porn ID far more intrusive.
• Although the Texas statute forbids retention and sets huge per‑violation fines, many doubt compliance and point to likely breaches, leaks, or intentional abuse (e.g., extortion schemes).
• Proposed alternatives include login.gov‑style tokens, government‑signed age attestations, and W3C “verifiable credentials” designed to prove age without revealing identity or browsing targets. Others worry about collusion, timing correlations, and centralized federal data.

Effectiveness, VPNs, and Workarounds

• Widespread expectation that motivated users will just use VPNs or foreign sites; some foresee later attempts to regulate or deanonymize VPNs, or broader moves against strong encryption.
• There are tongue‑in‑cheek suggestions to defeat the “more than one-third sexual material” threshold by flooding sites with AI‑generated benign content.

Children, Porn, and Parenting

• Several parents argue the real problem is social media and mixed‑content platforms, not dedicated porn sites; those are harder to block and where kids often first see explicit or disturbing material.
• Views on harm diverge: some cite changing sexual norms (e.g., choking) as evidence of porn’s negative influence; others emphasize consent and education, arguing that shame‑based regulation is misguided.
• A substantial subthread argues that laws are a poor substitute for engaged parenting, better sex education, and robust, privacy‑respecting parental controls or whitelisted “kid internet” environments.