Summary

The Supreme Court’s hearing of Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton signals potential limits on First Amendment protections for online pornography.

The case involves a Texas law mandating age verification for websites with “sexual material harmful to minors,” challenging the 2004 Ashcroft v. ACLU precedent, which struck down similar laws under strict scrutiny.

Justices, citing the inadequacy of modern filtering tools, seemed inclined to weaken free speech protections, exploring standards like intermediate scrutiny.

The ruling could reshape online speech regulations, leaving adults’ access to sexual content uncertain while tightening restrictions for minors.

  • asteriskeverything@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    The vague threat of “think of the children maybe being exposed to sexual things” challenging our first amendment right but it becomes some huge debate if a woman is being harassed/stalked/threatened online.

    **they are justififying destroying our rights for their feelings **

  • esc27@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    So we can ban content that is claimed to be harmful to minors but not weapons that actually kill children…

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 hours ago

      Even in terms of speech, it’s ridiculous to claim that boobs are more harmful than a social media diet of assholes claiming women or racial minorities aren’t people.

    • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      Close your eyes for just a moment and imagine the scales of Justice.

      Imagine white kids on one side and brown kids on the other.

      Why aren’t the scales balanced?

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Notice how we’re already asking past the sale with the tacit labeling of “sexual material harmful to minors,” with the presupposed declaration that sexual material is automatically harmful to minors.

    The all-consuming mission to look at boobies is essentially universal for all pubescent boys from about 12 all the way to the age of majority. This is well known, and none of us came off any the worse despite widespread availability of older brothers’ back issues of Hustler, Usenet, dial-up BBS systems, and ultimately the world wide web.

    If teens weren’t naturally interested in sex where wouldn’t been all them teenage pregnancies. Q.E.D.

    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 hours ago

      This is an excellent observation.

      We now no longer have the debate over whether or not this content is necessarily harmful to minors. It’s now automatically bad, and the new framing is: shouldn’t we ban bad things?

      Should expect more of this kind of newspeak/doublespeak as the Trump years continue.

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
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      12 hours ago

      Just saying, the shit you can find on the Internet does not come even close to what Hustler was. There is instant access to all kinds of weird and fucked fetish shit that just wasn’t accessible in the 90s and earlier.

      • Cort@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Bizarre fetish shit was very much available in the 90s and earlier. It just wasn’t in hustler or playboy.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        10 hours ago

        There’s a vid on archive.org of the Spice Channel that must have been off someone’s VHS tape. It flickers a lot and is barely watchable, but I was curious what we were all missing back then.

        Turns out, way more softcore than I was expecting. Slightly more hardcore than Skinamax at the time, but not by much.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Get ready for the slippery slope. Anything conservatives don’t want you to see or read will be placed behind an “identify yourself” firewall.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    12 hours ago

    Define “sexual material.” What about the minors who get sexual gratification from Linux installation media repository mirrors?

      • danc4498@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        They didn’t even mention individuals having the rights to own guns, but god damn they had to add that one to the second amendment through the courts.

        • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 hours ago

          “A well regulated militia”

          Back then that meant a gun group with regular training, any civillian in the militia could also own guns for private use

          • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Can you explain your position? Honest question, because if I just take your post “Militias are armed citizens” I can use logic to know that to be false. Militia can be comprised of armed citizens, but armed citizens are not militia…

            A log cabin is made of logs, but a log isnt a cabin?

            • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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              6 hours ago

              Can you explain your position?

              Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary’ - Karl Marx

              • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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                6 hours ago

                I had no idea Karl Marx was an author of the constitution of the United States! Wow! Thanks!

  • minnow@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    What’s taught in schools: the parents should have a say! Don’t let the government decide what to teach our kids!

    Books in libraries and content on the internet: the government must step in and make certain content illegal!

    Of course, fascists don’t care if they’re hypocritical. They say whatever gives them the most power in any situation, so calling out hypocrisy won’t stop them. It’s still good to do, though.

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    12 hours ago

    some republicants cheering for the scotus ruling today will be scrambling to try to legislate around it tomorrow… because their porn habits will get hacked and released.

  • Omega@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Soon they’ll make sexual partners register with the state or straight up make premarital sex illegal. And anyone found breaking the law (i.e. women getting pregnant) will go to jail.

    • d00phy@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      … will go to jail and be forced to carry the pregnancy to term, be billed for delivery services, and raise the kid on her own. Nothing screams “stable childhood” like the government forcing your kid on you as punishment for getting pregnant.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        And then soon after CPS will be called and they’ll take away the kid and I don’t even want to think about where they’ll send them.

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      For every “legal” porn site that abides by these laws there’s 10 that don’t give a fuck and aren’t even in the US. Porn id laws won’t change anything.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          The law isn’t about protecting children from porn.

          The law is about creating a user database where they can then see who’s looking at LGBTQ+ material and targeting them, while also imposing their religious prudishness on everyone else.

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Stop posting this brain dead take on every post about this topic. Neither of your posts have any value.

      What the fuck does a porn site gaining a “more official standing” (read: jumps through some random government hoops) do for American citizen’s privacy?

      What about every other porn site that doesn’t operate in the US? This shit is unenforceable and only HURTS the “more official” sites by limiting their users limiting the reach of their models etc.

      If you would just open your eyes for one second and get that boot out of your mouth you would see this shit only helps the government control us and what we access, without keeping a single child safe.