INDIANAPOLIS – U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking a law set to go into effect Monday requiring age verification for porn websites.
“Indiana’s age verification requirements are likely unconstitutional,” he said. “If Indiana were truly interested in protecting minors from seeing adult content, it would have imposed age verification requirements wherever those images are found, not by determining which websites displaying adult content present the most danger. The Act does not sufficiently advance the government’s interests in protecting minors from obscene speech because minors can circumvent the law using technology or finding websites not covered by the Act.”
Senate Bill 17 requires that “adult-oriented websites” hosting explicit materials — such as pornography or other “material harmful to minors” — verify a user’s identity before allowing access. That could be by scanning a driver’s license or registering with a third-party verification service.
Pornhub and a coalition of other filmmakers, producers, distributors, wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers, internet platforms, and other creative artists involved in the adult industry — dubbed the Free Speech Coalition Inc. — sued to block the law. As of Friday, Pornhub had already shut down access to its site in Indiana.
The Niki Kelly article for the Indiana Capital Chronicle continues here.
