Tennessee Age Verification Law: Protect Tennessee Minors Act Explained

Tennessee's Protect Tennessee Minors Act requires covered websites to verify a visitor's age before granting access to adult content. It has been enforceable since January 2025, when the Sixth Circuit stayed a district court injunction against it, and the General Assembly amended it later that year while the First Amendment case was still pending.

What Tennessee's Protect Tennessee Minors Act Requires

Senate Bill 1792, the Protect Tennessee Minors Act, was enacted as 2024 Tennessee Public Acts chapter 1021 and is codified at Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-17-912. It restricts minors' access to adult content online by requiring covered websites to verify a visitor's age before granting access to material of that kind, and it makes a violation of the age-verification and data-retention duties a Class C felony. The law took effect January 1, 2025.

A nearby section, Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-17-911, is a separate and older statute covering the in-person sale, loan, or exhibition of material harmful to minors. It carries a Class A misdemeanor penalty and contains no website or age-verification provisions, so it is not the source of Tennessee's online age-verification requirement.

The 2025 Amendment to the Act

The General Assembly changed the PTMA in its next session. Public Chapter 405, enacted as Senate Bill 448 and passed on April 21, 2025, amends Section 39-17-912 by deleting subdivision (b)(5) in its entirety. That subdivision was the Act's own long definition of content harmful to minors. The chapter takes effect upon becoming law.

The amendment matters to how the statute is being defended in court. In a July 2025 status report, the State told the federal district court that the PTMA, as recently amended, mirrors the Texas law the Supreme Court upheld under intermediate scrutiny in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton.

The Sixth Circuit Stayed an Injunction in January 2025, Not 2026

A First Amendment challenge to the PTMA, Free Speech Coalition, Incorporated, et al. v. Jonathan Thomas Skrmetti, No. 24-6158, reached the Sixth Circuit after the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee granted a preliminary injunction on December 30, 2024, one day before the law was to take effect. The State asked the Sixth Circuit for an emergency stay of that injunction, and the court granted it on January 13, 2025, allowing the PTMA to be enforced. Tennessee's own Attorney General's office announced the stay directly.

A stay pending appeal is not the same thing as a final ruling upholding the law. The Sixth Circuit's stay order noted only that its initial review suggested the district court's First Amendment analysis was lacking, which is a likelihood-of-success signal rather than a final holding.

How Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Reshaped the Tennessee Case

The Sixth Circuit's stay predates the U.S. Supreme Court's June 27, 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, which upheld a Texas age-verification law and held that this category of statute triggers, and survives, intermediate scrutiny rather than the stricter standard the challengers argued for. Paxton was decided while Tennessee's appeal, involving the same lead plaintiff organization and a materially similar law, was pending.

Both courts then moved. In the Sixth Circuit, the attorney general filed a motion on July 9, 2025 asking the court to vacate the district court's injunction and remand for further proceedings; the plaintiffs opposed it on July 22 and the State replied on July 29. In the district court, where the case had been stayed since April 22, 2025 pending Paxton, the parties were ordered to file a status update within ten days of the decision. The State filed one; the plaintiffs filed nothing, and on July 15, 2025 Chief Judge Sheryl H. Lipman ordered them to show cause by July 22 why their claims should not be dismissed for that failure.

The Sixth Circuit then vacated the injunction on November 4, 2025 and remanded for proceedings consistent with Paxton. On remand, on September 15, 2026, the Western District of Tennessee denied the State's motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' amended complaint, so the case continues. The law has been enforceable since the January 2025 stay, and we found no merits ruling either upholding or striking down the PTMA.

Two Different Skrmetti Cases: Do Not Confuse Them

Tennessee is a defendant in more than one age-verification lawsuit, and search results for "Tennessee Skrmetti age verification" easily conflate two genuinely separate cases. Free Speech Coalition v. Skrmetti, No. 24-6158, is the case described above, challenging the PTMA's adult-content age-verification requirement.

NetChoice, LLC v. Skrmetti, No. 25-5660, is a different case entirely, challenging Tennessee's Protecting Children from Social Media Act, a separate statute governing parental consent and age verification for social media platforms rather than adult content. It came out of the Middle District of Tennessee, was argued February 4, 2026, and was decided August 28, 2026: the Sixth Circuit held that NetChoice's members had shown irreparable harm, vacated the district court's ruling on the preliminary-injunction motion, and remanded for further consideration. Judge Batchelder wrote for the court, joined by Judge Ritz, with Judge Clay dissenting. The two cases share a defendant's name but carry different docket numbers and concern different statutes, and a source describing one should not be read as describing the other.

Statutory citations here were checked against the bill and public chapter texts published by the Tennessee General Assembly and against the federal district court order that first construed the Act. The district court's September 15, 2026 denial of the motion to dismiss, which recites the Sixth Circuit's November 4, 2025 vacatur and remand, was checked against the court's published decision on GovInfo. Current as of 2026-09-28.

Related Resources

• Age Verification Laws by State
• Texas Age Verification Law
• Mississippi Age Verification Law
• KOSA and COPPA 2.0

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Last updated: 2026-09-28.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is porn banned in Tennessee?

No. The Protect Tennessee Minors Act requires covered websites to verify a visitor's age before granting access to adult content; it does not prohibit adults from viewing the material once verified.

What law requires age verification in Tennessee?

The Protect Tennessee Minors Act, enacted as SB 1792 (2024 Tennessee Public Acts chapter 1021) and codified at Tenn. Code Ann. Section 39-17-912, effective January 1, 2025. A separate, older statute, Section 39-17-911, covers in-person sale or exhibition of material harmful to minors and is not the online age-verification law.

Was the Protect Tennessee Minors Act amended?

Yes. Public Chapter 405 of 2025, enacted as Senate Bill 448 and passed April 21, 2025, deleted subdivision (b)(5) of Section 39-17-912, which was the Act's own definition of content harmful to minors. It took effect upon becoming law.

Has Tennessee's age-verification law been struck down?

No. A district court preliminary injunction against the law was stayed by the Sixth Circuit on January 13, 2025, and the Sixth Circuit vacated it on November 4, 2025, so the law has been enforceable since January 2025 while the challenge continues in the district court. We found no ruling striking it down.

Did the Sixth Circuit rule Tennessee's age-verification law constitutional?

Not in any decision we found. The Sixth Circuit stayed a lower-court injunction pending appeal, which is a likelihood-of-success signal rather than a final holding. On November 4, 2025 it vacated the injunction and remanded for proceedings consistent with Paxton, which is not a ruling on the merits, and the challenge continues in the district court.

Is NetChoice v. Skrmetti about the same Tennessee law as Free Speech Coalition v. Skrmetti?

No. NetChoice, LLC v. Skrmetti, No. 25-5660, challenges a separate Tennessee statute, the Protecting Children from Social Media Act, and was decided by the Sixth Circuit on August 28, 2026. Free Speech Coalition v. Skrmetti, No. 24-6158, concerns the Protect Tennessee Minors Act's adult-content age-verification requirement. The two are frequently confused because they share a defendant's name.

When did Tennessee's age-verification law take effect?

January 1, 2025.