Age verification laws saw an unfathomable renaissance in 2024. It’s quite frightening to see a political class of predominately far-right Christian nationalists implement the anti-porn vision of Project 2025 without President-elect Donald Trump yet entering the White House.
These laws coming out of state legislatures are scripted like how Russell Vought, a controversial architect of Project 2025 and one of Trump’s closest Christian nationalist allies, described in a viral undercover video revealing how age verification laws serve as a “back door” ban on porn.
As of this writing, nearly 139 million U.S. residents live in states with age verification laws on the books that specifically target adult entertainment platforms like Pornhub.com or xHamster.com.
That is slightly over 41 percent of the country’s total population. They reside in 19 predominantly Republican-held states, which President-elect Trump won during the 2024 Presidential Election. Virginia going blue this past election is the one exception, despite having their age-gating law.
Several of these states will also have age verification laws in effect on Jan. 1, 2025. States with laws entering force include Florida (HB 3), Tennessee (SB 1792), and South Carolina (H. 3424). Georgia’s age verification law (SB 351) will enter force on July 1, 2025.
The parent companies of platforms like Pornhub have geo-blocked or will geo-block these states.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Jan. 15 in a case challenging the state of Texas and its age verification law, House Bill 1181. That lawsuit was brought by the Free Speech Coalition and a plaintiff class of the operators of the world’s largest adult websites.
The Free Speech Coalition additionally filed new federal lawsuits in Tennessee and Florida.
In the lawsuit filed in Tennessee particularly, the Free Speech Coalition and its fellow plaintiffs – online sex education providers, pleasure product retailers, and fan platforms – not only highlight the clusterfuck of censoring protected speech but the fact that violators could face a felony.
How can Republican elected officials justify these laws when they say they support “freedom” and the First Amendment rights of their constituents?
The truth is that they can’t justify these laws. And most of them know that.
Considering all of this, the reason far-right folks are successful in presenting anti-porn laws as so-called “public health” or “public safety” measures is that they excel at fearmongering and manipulating their base into believing in bigoted and outlandish falsehoods about sexuality.
What can be done? Resisting age verification laws and other content restrictions presented by the far-right as “protections” for minors or family values is paramount to the activism agenda in 2025. Lawsuits and lobbying can only go so far. Age verification laws are not only unpopular, but urging grassroots-level organizing that transcends the political spectrum is what we need to see.
A perfect example of this can be seen among the coalition of organizations urging the Supreme Court to kill Texas HB 1181 through amicus briefs and in the representation of the Free Speech Coalition and the porn companies. Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union took up the case along with the Free Speech Coalition’s private attorneys due to the civil liberties overlap.
The Cato Institute, Institute for Justice, and Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, and many other civil society groups in urging the court to rule against Texas and protect freedom of expression.
Here’s to 2025 and fighting Trump-emboldened far-right Christian nationalism.
Cheers, folks.
Michael McGrady covers the tech and legal sides of the online porn business.
