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The Stand Magazine

October 2025

SCOTUS sides with AFA against Big Porn

Trey Dellinger
Page 31
Min. Read

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In the past 30 years, American life has become dominated by the internet, which took pornography mainstream.

According to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, 87% of American adult men watch pornography at least weekly.

A 2002 study from Common Sense Media found that, on average, kids are exposed to pornography online by age 12. Over 40% of teens surveyed viewed pornography intentionally, while nearly 60% viewed it unintentionally. Most kids who were surveyed had viewed pornography within the past week.

 

A legislative movement  

Yet, in 1997 and 2004, the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) struck down two pieces of federal legislation attempting to protect kids from online pornography. So, an entire generation of American children grew up awash in internet porn.

But now, a new movement to protect children is sweeping the nation. As of press time, 24 states had passed age verification laws requiring websites to verify that users are adults before allowing access to pornography.

However, these laws weren’t passed without roadblocks. Throughout 2023 and 2024, Big Porn sued to block the passage of an age verification law in Texas. The case made its way to SCOTUS, where the fate of all such laws hung in the balance. American Family Association (AFA) and its governmental affairs affiliate, AFA Action, along with legislators from 15 states, filed an amicus brief strongly supporting the Texas law.

On June 27, SCOTUS upheld the Texas law. In a majority opinion that closely tracked AFA’s arguments, Justice Clarence Thomas noted that sexually graphic material harmful to minors had no free speech protection historically.

Even as late as 1968, the court held that state laws could constitutionally protect kids from material that was obscene for them, even if it was not obscene for adults. The SCOTUS opinion handed down in Free Speech Coalition Inc. v. Paxton noted that the law has always limited kids’ access to freedoms open to adults, even fundamental rights like marriage and voting. This case did more than uphold the Texas law. It represents a broad-based affirmation of laws protecting children online and gives legislators still broader opportunities to make the internet more family friendly.

 

A promising future  

Child pornography, now referred to by most experts as “child sexual abuse material” (CSAM), is also a growing problem. A 2020 New York Times article noted that “Google returns 920 million videos on a search for ‘young porn.’” The Times also reported that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found 69.2 million online videos or other files depicting child sexual exploitation. The MIT Technology Review reported that “the U.S. accounted for 30% of the global total” of CSAM, with sites from around the world moving to the United States because of a lack of policing and enforcement.

So, to protect families from CSAM and adult obscenity online, AFA Action recently worked with Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Mississippi legislators to pass innovative new legislation. Neither adult obscenity nor CSAM is protected speech. Their publication is a crime under federal law and under the law in all 50 states. AFA Action’s legislation gives victims and private attorneys a basis to sue the Big Porn companies civilly for the harm caused by online child pornography and adult obscenity. AFA action is currently working to pass this promising legislation in other states.

“AFA’s work over the past year proves that when Christian conservatives take a stand for what’s right in the courts and legislatures, we can make America family friendly again,” said Dr. Jameson Taylor, director of AFA Action’s Center for Government Renewal.  

October Issue
2025
A Shield Against Pornography
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