Free Speech Coalition Sues Florida to Block Age-Verification Law
Free Speech Coalition, alongside co-plaintiffs working in the sex education, adult content, sexual wellness, and legal fields, has filed a legal challenge in Florida against the state’s age-verification mandate, which is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2025.
HB3 empowers the Florida attorney general’s office to bring civil claims of up to $50,000 per violation against websites with “material harmful to minors” if they do not require visitors to upload a government ID, scan their face, or otherwise verify their age and identity. Different provisions of the same law, requiring age-verification for social media access, have already been challenged by other litigants.
“These laws create a substantial burden on adults who want to access legal sites without fear of surveillance,” says Alison Boden, Executive Director of Free Speech Coalition. “Despite the claims of the proponents, HB3 is not the same as showing an ID at a liquor store. It is invasive and carries significant risk to privacy. This law and others like it have effectively become state censorship, creating a massive chilling effect for those who speak about, or engage with, issues of sex or sexuality.”
Free Speech Coalition is challenging similar laws in Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Utah, Indiana and Montana. The Texas case, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, will be heard by the United States Supreme Court in January 2025.
Joining Free Speech Coalition as co-plaintiffs are the sex education platform O.school (Deep Technologies, Inc.); sexual wellness retailer Adam & Eve (PHE, Inc.); adult fan platform JustFor.Fans (JFF Publications, LLC), and Florida attorney Barry Chase.
The plaintiffs are represented by D. Gill Sperlein of the Law Office of D. Gill Sperlein, Jeffrey Sandman of Webb Daniel Friedlander LLP, Gary S. Edinger of Benjamin, Aaronson, Edinger & Patanzo, P.A., and Lawrence G. Walters of Walters Law Group.
More: View the filing or learn more about FSC’s current litigation.
