UPDATE: Jun. 27, 2025, 2:13 p.m. EDT This article was initially published in March 2023. It has been revised in January 2025 and once more in June, following SCOTUS’s ruling on age verification. It encompasses original interviews from 2023 alongside updated legal information.

In recent times, there have been assaults on online free speech, from the postponed TikTok ban to the collapse of net neutrality. As President-elect Donald Trump’s second term approaches and the suggestions of Project 2025 become a reality, U.S. legislators might persist in targeting access to an unfettered internet. A pertinent instance is the emergence of age-verification bills, mandating proof of age to view adult content or even social networks. Authorities caution that these bills jeopardize digital privacy and freedom of expression.

What are age-verification bills?

In 2022, Louisiana enacted Act 440, which requires individuals visiting websites with more than 33.33 percent adult content to utilize a commercial age-verification system (AVS) to demonstrate they are over 18, such as with a government-issued ID. The legislation took effect on Jan. 1, 2023.

Subsequently, similar bills appeared across the nation. By early 2025, age-verification laws had been enacted in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Georgia’s variant, SB 351, is set to take effect on July 1, 2025. The Free Speech Coalition, a lobbying group for the adult industry, monitors these bills through an extensive database.

On Jan. 15, the Supreme Court addressed Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, a case concerning Texas’s age-verification law. On June 27, SCOTUS upheld the legislation, setting a precedent for such laws nationwide.

In the UK, analogous legislation is slated to progress in late July. France also implemented age-verification in June 2025, only for its law to be paused weeks later until it is determined to be legal under EU regulations.

Project 2025 and age-verification bills

Project 2025 advocates for a complete ban on pornography and the incarceration of porn creators. One of the authors of Project 2025, Russell Vought (whom Trump requested to return as the head of the Office of Management and Budget), was caught on a secret recording declaring that age-verification bills serve as a “back door” strategy to accomplish this.

“We devised a plan concerning pornography to ensure that the porn companies shoulder