Free porn site Pornhub won a court victory over the state of Texas. Credit: Shutterstock / charnsitr

Texans may want to have their driver’s licenses handy next time they log in to ogle naughty content.

A federal appeals court last week ruled that a new state law requiring people to prove they’re 18 years or older before watching porn can go into effect while a court battle over the legislation’s legality plays out.

In June, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1181, which requires any commercial and online entity that distributes pornography to use age verification methods to ensure that users are 18 or older.

A coalition of adult-entertainment sites, including Pornhub, joined free-speech advocates in suing Texas to prohibit the new law from taking effect. In August, a federal judge ruled in the coalition’s favor, arguing that the law is overly broad and “unconstitutional on its face.”

However, that all changed Nov. 14, when the three-judge U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the injunction as Texas appeals the ruling. That means the state can enforce the age-verification law while the court battle plays out.

“Texas has a right to protect its children from the detrimental effects of pornographic content,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “As new technology makes harmful content more accessible than ever, we must make every effort to defend those who are most vulnerable.”

Under the law, distributors of adult content can be fined up to $10,000 daily for failing to verify the age of users. Companies can also be fined $250,000 per day if at least one child is exposed to pornographic material.

Even so, companies do not appear to be enforcing the law as of press time Tuesday. Visits to several popular adult-content sites did not yield prompts to provide age verification.

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This article appears in Nov 15-28, 2023.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...