INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) — In late June, a judge blocked an Indiana law from going into effect, which would have forced Hoosiers to upload sensitive documents to pornographic sites to confirm they are 18 or older. On Friday, a stay was granted for that bill, meaning it will be passed as law.
Senate Bill 17 also allows Indiana residents to bring a civil suit against sites with “material harmful to minors,” per the Free Speech Coalition.
According to court documents, the bill is virtually identical to one adopted by the state of Texas.
“We do not see any adequate reason why Texas’s law may be enforced pending
the decision on the merits in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, while Indiana’s may not be
enforced,” the docs read. “Functionally identical statutes should be treated the same while the Supreme Court considers the matter.”
Critics, including the judge who initially blocked the legislation, called the bill “likely facially unconstitutional” under the First Amendment. On the other hand, those in support of its passing — like Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita — are saying it could protect minors from viewing sensitive material.
Court documents argued, “These tools [of requiring age verification] also allow parents to adjust what their children can see and when, such that younger children might be restricted from more websites than a child immediately before their 18th birthday.”
The documents also acknowledged that filtering content may not necessarily be a catch-all method. They stated how it’s not always widely used, it’s entirely possible to accidentally block content that does not require filtration and children are capable of finding ways to get around content blocking.
In a post to X (formerly Twitter), the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana wrote, “We’ll keep saying it: We can make the internet safer for minors without undermining the constitutional rights of adults.”