Texas AG Sues Porn Site Parent Companies Violating Age-Verification Law
By Movieguide® Contributor
Texas’ attorney general has filed lawsuits against two parent companies of pornography sites in an effort to protect minors from seeing sexually explicit material online.
A press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he has sued “Multi Media, LLC, and Hammy Media, major pornography companies that operate sites such as ‘Chaturbate’ and ‘xHamster,’ for violating HB 1181, a Texas law that requires reasonable age verification measures to protect minors from being exposed to harmful obscene material.”
“Instead of abiding by Texas law requiring purveyors of obscene material to institute age verification systems, the companies present minors who access their websites with pornographic content and they provide no meaningful screening,” the statement continued.
Paxton’s suits ask a judge to find that the companies are violating state law, as well as restrict them from publishing and distributing sexually explicit material “without implementing reasonable age verification methods.”
The suits are also asking for civil penalties of $10,000 a day for each day the companies were found to be violating the law.
“PornHub has now disabled its website in Texas,” Paxton said of his efforts to combat porn website operators. “Sites like PornHub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children. In Texas, companies cannot get away with showing porn to children. If they don’t want to comply, they should leave Texas.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Texas’ age-verification laws:
The Texas Senate just passed a bill requiring age verification on pornography sites in an attempt to protect children from exposure to inappropriate content.
The bill, HB 1181, would require any online platform that contains pornographic material to verify with ID that users are 18 or older. The sites would not be able to retain any ID information from the users.
HB 1181 has been passed on to Texas Governor Greg Abbott for approval. If passed, Texas would become the fifth state that has passed legislation that protects children from pornographic content.
Kansas is poised to pass similar legislation that would require age verification for pornography websites.
“The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature passed the proposal Tuesday, sending it to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly,” ABC News wrote. “The House voted for it 92-31 and the Senate approved it unanimously last month.”
The outlet also reported that at least eight other states have implemented age-verification laws since 2022: Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah, and Virginia.
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