State Sued Over Protect Tennessee Minors Act Requiring Age Verification For Pornography Websites

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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

The state of Tennessee is being sued over a bill signed earlier this year that requires pornography users to verify their age while accessing “adult” websites.

The Protect Tennessee Minors Act was signed in June by Governor Bill Lee and is now being challenged as unconstitutional by the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and their co-plaintiffs who say that the new law violates the first amendment rights of Tennesseans. The group is seeking an injunction to stop the law from going into effect.

The law was passed this year after many years of debate as a way to shield children from online pornography. According to Common Sense Media, 73 percent of teenagers surveyed nationwide, between 13 and 17, reported having watched online porn, with over half of those same teens saying they had first viewed it before the age of 13.

The issue has been on the radar of Tennessee lawmakers since 2017 when they declared pornography a public health crisis in a joint resolution.

A study conducted by the National Library of Medicine in 2023, found that teen pornography use is on the rise and has been increasing in a continuous fashion. And according to the web traffic data from Pornhub, the United States may be viewing the most pornography, with Tennessee making the top ten list of states with the longest time spent per visit to that website.

The new law, that goes into effect in January, requires users of pornographic sites to verify their age hourly. This electronic check-in every 60 minutes has only one purpose according to FSC, and that is to “shame” the adult who is watching porn. FSC has said that the law is unnecessary. Parents should put parental controls on devices that their children use instead.

Violation of the law could lead to criminal and civil penalties with up to 15 years behind bars and a maximum of $10,000 in fines.

Similar laws passed in other states – Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Texas, and Utah – have also been challenged by FSC who have vowed to sue any state that passes such laws to protect children. A lawsuit brought against the state of Texas is set to be heard by the Supreme Court in January.

Tennessee’s law, which was passed unanimously by lawmakers, requires that websites that are accessible within the state, having a third or more of content considered “harmful to minors” must verify the age of each user every hour. Each website must have users upload a state ID or verify age some other way, and retain seven years worth of user data that has been anonymized.

While 19 other states have passed similar laws already, and 7 more are considering such legislation, Tennessee stands alone in that violators would be charged with a felony.

Director of Public Affairs at FSC, Mike Stabile, has said such laws, instead of protecting minors, steers them toward illegal sites hosted overseas.

In some of the states where laws now require age verification in order to view porn, access to one of the largest pornography websites, Pornhub, was removed in response.

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.