Texas
Texas Age Verification Law: Chapter 129B and FSC v. Paxton Explained
Texas requires commercial websites where more than one-third of the content is sexual material harmful to minors to verify that a visitor is 18 or older before granting access. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that requirement 6-3 in June 2025, and Texas's law, Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 129B, is now the controlling precedent for the whole category of state age-verification statutes this site covers.
This article covers Texas's adult-content age-verification law (Chapter 129B, enacted by House Bill 1181) and, separately, Texas's newer App Store Accountability Act (Senate Bill 2420), which regulates Apple's and Google's app stores rather than individual websites. The two statutes are unrelated except that both originated in the Texas Legislature, and this page keeps them in separate sections so their very different court histories are not confused with each other.
What Texas's Age-Verification Law Requires
Chapter 129B applies to a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on a website, including a social media platform, where more than one-third of the total content is sexual material harmful to minors. A covered site must use a reasonable age-verification method under Section 129B.003 before letting a visitor access that material: either digital identification or a commercial age-verification system that checks a government-issued ID or relies on a commercially reasonable method using public or private transactional data.
Section 129B.002(b) bars whatever verifies the visitor's age from retaining any identifying information collected during that check. Chapter 129B took effect September 1, 2023.
Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton: the Supreme Court Case That Settled the Question
Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), decides whether Chapter 129B, and by extension the similar laws in roughly two dozen other states, survives the First Amendment. The Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit's judgment 6-3 on June 27, 2025, in an opinion by Justice Thomas joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.
The Court held that Chapter 129B's age-verification requirement triggers, and survives, intermediate scrutiny, not strict scrutiny, because the law only incidentally burdens adults' protected speech: it does not ban access to the material, it conditions access on proof of age. As the Court put it, no person, adult or child, has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting proof of age. Justice Kagan's dissent, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson, argued strict scrutiny should apply because the law is content-based, though Kagan separately wrote the law would likely pass strict scrutiny anyway. Texas's law is now the reference point every other state's age-verification statute is measured against.
The Health-Warning Label Is Enjoined; the Verification Requirement Is Not
Chapter 129B originally also required covered sites to display a health-warning label about the effects of pornography. The Fifth Circuit's 2024 ruling in this same case found that separate warning-label requirement, Section 129B.004, to be unconstitutional compelled speech and left the injunction against it in place, while applying a lower standard of review to uphold the age-verification requirement itself. The Supreme Court's 2025 decision addressed only the age-verification provision and did not disturb the warning-label injunction.
The practical effect for a Texas visitor is straightforward either way: a covered site must verify a visitor's age, but it does not have to display the health-warning label. This specific point rests on a secondary summary of the Fifth Circuit's 2024 opinion rather than a direct read of the opinion itself, so treat the underlying procedural mechanics as reported rather than independently confirmed against the ruling's text.
What Happens When You Visit an Affected Site From Texas
Texas's law does not ban adult content and does not prohibit an adult from viewing it once age is verified; it requires the site to check first. Some platforms chose to comply. Others did not. Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, geo-blocks visitors from Texas entirely rather than build a verification system, and has said publicly that its objection is to how age verification is implemented, particularly privacy concerns with ID-based systems, not to age verification as a concept.
That distinction matters for how the law gets described. A headline reading «Texas bans porn» overstates what Chapter 129B actually does: the statute requires verification, and a site's decision to block Texas traffic rather than comply is that company's own business choice, not a government prohibition on the content itself.
Penalties for Noncompliance
Chapter 129B is enforced only by the Texas Attorney General under Section 129B.006. There is no private right of action under this chapter, a structural difference from states such as Louisiana and Arizona that let private parties sue directly. The Attorney General can sue in Travis County or the violating entity's home county for injunctive relief and civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each day a violation continues, up to $10,000 for each instance of improperly retained identifying data, and an additional civil penalty of up to $250,000 if a minor actually accessed the material as a result of noncompliance.
Texas Also Regulates App Stores: the App Store Accountability Act
Separately from Chapter 129B, Texas's App Store Accountability Act (Senate Bill 2420) requires Apple's and Google's app stores, not individual websites, to verify a user's age and obtain parental consent before a minor downloads certain apps or makes in-app purchases. It is a newer, still-litigated statute regulating a different layer of the internet and should not be confused with the adult-content law described above.
A federal district judge preliminarily enjoined enforcement of SB 2420 in December 2025. The Fifth Circuit stayed that injunction on May 28, 2026, finding Texas had made a strong showing of likely success on the merits, and the law has been enforceable since June 4, 2026, per Apple's own developer notice. Two industry groups then asked the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay on an emergency basis; on July 6, 2026, the Court denied both applications in a brief, unsigned order with no noted dissents. That is a shadow-docket denial of emergency relief, not a ruling on SB 2420's constitutionality, and the underlying Fifth Circuit appeal remains open. Do not describe the July 2026 order as the Supreme Court upholding or ruling the app-store law constitutional. The Fifth Circuit heard oral argument on the merits appeal itself on August 4, 2026, before Circuit Judges Cory T. Wilson, Carl E. Stewart, and James E. Graves; the panel took the case under advisement with no ruling issued as of this writing.
Verified directly against Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 129B, the Supreme Court's opinion in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, and reporting on the SB 2420 appeal, current as of 2026-08-13. The Fifth Circuit's SB 2420 appeal is ongoing and its outcome could change the App Store Accountability Act's status; confirm the current posture before relying on this page for a time-sensitive decision.
Related Resources
- Age Verification Laws by State
- App Store Age Verification Laws
- KOSA and COPPA 2.0: Federal Age-Verification Legislation
- Mississippi Age Verification Law
- Utah Age Verification Law
- Texas Data Privacy Laws
Last updated: 2026-08-13.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is porn banned in Texas?
No. Texas law requires covered websites to verify a visitor's age before granting access to material harmful to minors; it does not prohibit adults from viewing that material once age is verified. Some sites chose to block Texas traffic rather than comply, which is a business decision, not a government ban.
What law requires age verification in Texas?
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 129B, enacted by House Bill 1181 in 2023, requires commercial websites where more than one-third of the content is sexual material harmful to minors to verify a visitor is 18 or older.
Did the Supreme Court strike down Texas's age-verification law?
No, the opposite. In Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), the Court upheld Chapter 129B's age-verification requirement 6-3, applying intermediate scrutiny.
Do Texas websites still have to show a health-warning label?
No. A separate provision requiring a health-warning label, Section 129B.004, was found unconstitutional and enjoined by the Fifth Circuit, and that ruling was not disturbed by the Supreme Court's 2025 decision. Covered sites still must verify age.
Who enforces Texas's age-verification law?
The Texas Attorney General, exclusively. Chapter 129B has no private right of action; the Attorney General can seek civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day of violation, plus up to $250,000 if a minor actually accessed the material.
Is Texas's App Store Accountability Act the same as Chapter 129B?
No. Senate Bill 2420 is a separate, newer law that regulates Apple's and Google's app stores directly, not individual websites, and it is still being litigated in the Fifth Circuit.
Did the Supreme Court uphold Texas's App Store Accountability Act?
Not yet on the merits. In July 2026 the Court declined, on an emergency basis, to block the law while the Fifth Circuit's appeal continues; that is a procedural stay-denial, not a ruling on the law's constitutionality. The Fifth Circuit itself heard oral argument on the underlying merits appeal on August 4, 2026, and had not ruled as of this writing.
Updates
Independently fact-checked against the cited primary sources
The Law Behind This Article
This article rests on 4 statutory provisions held in our own legal record, each retrieved from the official source. Tap a section to read the operative text.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code
§ 129b.002PUBLICATION AND CREATION OF MATERIAL HARMFUL TO MINORSIn force
(a) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on an Internet website, including a social media platform, more than one-third of which is sexual material harmful to minors, shall use reasonable age verification methods as described by Section 129B.003 to verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older. (a-1) Except as provided by Subsection (a-2), a commercial entity that operates an Internet website with a publicly accessible tool for creating artificial sexual material harmful to minors or otherwise makes publicly available an application for creating sexual material harmful to minors shall use reasonable age verification methods as described by Section 129B.003 to verify an individual attempting to access the tool is 18 years of age or older.
Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at statutes.capitol.texas.gov
§ 129b.003REASONABLE AGE VERIFICATION METHODSIn force
(a) In this section, "digital identification" means information stored on a digital network that may be accessed by a commercial entity and that serves as proof of the identity of an individual. (b) A commercial entity required to use reasonable age verification methods under Section 129B.002 or a third party that performs age verification under this chapter shall require an individual to: (1) provide digital identification; or (2) comply with a commercial age verification system that verifies age using: (A) government-issued identification; or (B) a commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an individual.
Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at statutes.capitol.texas.gov
§ 129b.004SEXUAL MATERIALS HEALTH WARNINGSIn force
A commercial entity required to use reasonable age verification methods under Section 129B.002(a) shall: (1) display the following notices on the landing page of the Internet website on which sexual material harmful to minors is published or distributed and all advertisements for that Internet website in 14-point font or larger: "TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WARNING: Pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function." "TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WARNING: Exposure to this content is associated with low self-esteem and body image, eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses." "TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WARNING: Pornography increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography."; and (2) display the following notice at the bottom of every page of the Internet website in 14-point font or larger: "U.S.
Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at statutes.capitol.texas.gov
§ 129b.006CIVIL PENALTY; INJUNCTIONIn force
(a) If the attorney general believes that an entity is knowingly violating or has knowingly violated this chapter and the action is in the public interest, the attorney general may bring an action in a Travis County district court or the district court in the county in which the principal place of business of the entity is located in this state to enjoin the violation, recover a civil penalty, and obtain other relief the court considers appropriate. (b) A civil penalty imposed under this section for a violation of Section 129B.002, 129B.003, or 129B.0045 may be in an amount equal to not more than the total, if applicable, of: (1) $10,000 per day that the entity operates an Internet website or makes available an application in violation of the age verification requirements of this chapter; (2) $10,000 per instance when the entity retains identifying information in violation of Section 129B.002(b); and (3) if, because of the entity's violation of the age verification requirements of this chapter, one or more minors accesses sexual material harmful to minors, an additional amount of not more than $250,000.
Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at statutes.capitol.texas.gov
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Sources and References
- Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 129B.002-.003, Age Verification Requirement for Sexual Material Harmful to Minors(texas.public.law)
- Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), Opinion of the Court(supremecourt.gov).gov
- Supreme Court Allows Texas to Enforce Law Requiring Age Verification and Parental Consent on App Stores(scotusblog.com)
- Apple Developer News: Texas Age-Assurance Requirements Live Under the App Store Accountability Act(developer.apple.com)