Tracker record · Texas · Statute
Texas age-verification law for adult content (HB 1181)
HB 1181 requires commercial websites that publish a substantial portion of sexual material harmful to minors to verify that visitors are 18 or older. In Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), decided June 27, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the age-verification requirement in a 6-3 decision, holding that it triggers and survives intermediate scrutiny because it only incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults. The Court did not pass on the act's separate health-warning provisions, which were not before it; the Fifth Circuit had left the district court's injunction of those provisions in place. The record keeps the distinction: the Supreme Court's holding covers the age-verification requirement only.
Status
- Legal status
- In effect (Age-verification requirement upheld in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), decided June 27, 2025; the act's health-warning provisions were not before the Court)
- Allegation or finding
- Operative law
- Applicability
- Commercial websites publishing a substantial portion of sexual material harmful to minors
- Enforceability
- Binding on parties within scope
- Effective date
- Scheduled September 1, 2023; enjoined August 31, 2023; injunction lifted by the Fifth Circuit in November 2023
- Law checked through
- October 12, 2026
- Primary-source pinpoint
- Enrolled act
- Primary source
- https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/html/HB01181F.htm
- Citation
- Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 129B (HB 1181, 2023)
- Source
- HB 1181, 88th Legislature (2023)
Procedural events
- 2023-06-12: Signed as HB 1181, 88th Legislature
- 2025-06-27: U.S. Supreme Court upholds the age-verification requirement, Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025)