Supreme Court Ruling Sparks Age Checks—Here’s a Smarter Fix

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton—in which the court upheld Texas's age verification requirements for adult websites—marks a pivotal moment in online content regulation. The Court has opened the floodgates for state-level age-verification legislation not just for adult websites, but for any online service. Congress should act swiftly to both protect children’s safety online and prevent a fragmented regulatory landscape that burdens online services and users alike.

The best solution is for Congress to pass legislation requiring a standardized “trustworthy child flag” system. When first creating a new user account, such as during device setup, parents could opt to designate an account as belonging to a child. These accounts would transmit a “flag” that signals to apps and websites that a user is underage. Congress could then also require those that serve age-restricted content to check for this signal for their users, allowing them to restrict underage users from age-inappropriate content automatically. Because the setting is tied to the account, not the device, it would carry over when a child logs in on a new phone, tablet, or computer. To ensure consistency and reduce compliance costs, Congress should also preempt state child age verification laws and replace them with this unified, privacy-respecting approach.

In Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton (2025), the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that states may require websites with a significant portion of adult content to verify users’ age to prevent minors from accessing such content. The case challenged Texas HB 1181, which requires age verification for websites with more than one-third of their content deemed "harmful to minors," and the Court's decision upheld the state's authority to implement such requirements despite First Amendment challenges from adult entertainment industry groups.

Many states will likely take this decision as a green light to continue introducing age verification bills aimed at protecting minors from harm. Over 40 states and Washington, DC have introduced or passed laws requiring some form of age verification to access online services. While these laws are well-intentioned, they are also deeply flawed.

There are several approaches that states are taking to implement age verification. Some states require each individual online service to verify that their users are over a certain age. Texas and Utah have implemented one of the most stringent approaches. The law requires users to submit a copy of their government-issued identification to the operator of the online service before they can gain access, a limitation for adults who do not have a government ID. Nine states are currently considering this approach, and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Congressman John James (R-MI) have introduced a similar bill at the federal level. Other states, like Maryland and California, have adopted age-appropriate design codes, which establish standards that online services must follow to make their services safe for children. With these types of bills, online services may also have to collect and retain information from users’ government-issued IDs.

Some states require app stores to handle age verification. These policies require app store providers to obtain verifiable parental consent before allowing a minor to download, purchase, or use certain apps. Users would only need to verify their age once per app store. This approach is less burdensome for users since they only have to verify their age once at the app store, rather than with each service. It also better protects privacy than requiring separate age verification for each online service because a user’s data is confined to one app store (or stores) rather than multiple platforms, when designed correctly. However, it does not address age verification for websites, a considerable gap. It would be more effective to require age verification, when necessary, at the device level, requiring users to verify their age once with their device’s operating system when creating an account.

While many of these laws, like Texas HB 1181, target adult websites, some, like Florida and Arkansas, target social media platforms, including those that do not contain a significant portion of adult content or that restrict youth from viewing such content. These laws are based on the premise that social media is harmful to children. Although most social media platforms already forbid children under 13 from creating accounts, some lawmakers believe that the age should be higher or that children should not have access to social media at all. While the Supreme Court’s ruling in Paxton determined that age verification for adult websites is constitutional, there is a much stronger free speech argument against age verification for social media.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court’s decision establishes a precedent that age checks are indeed on the way for many users, at least for adult websites. Rather than allow each state to set its own method for age verification, the best solution for protecting children online and for allowing adults to continue to access adult content is for Congress to require a device-level national child flag system. Rather than using ID checks, this opt-in process gives users, children, and parents alike control over their online experiences and creates a national age verification standard, rather than a fragmented state landscape.