Two more pornography distributors have found themselves in the crosshairs of Attorney General Ken Paxton for failing to comply with a new law requiring age verification for internet pornography.
House Bill 1181, which went into effect in November, requires commercial porn websites to use “reasonable” methods to verify that users are at least 18 years of age before they can access X-rated content online. A coalition of pornography promoters, along with other pro-porn plaintiffs, had sued Texas to keep HB 1181 from taking effect.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, however, ruled that the law was constitutional.
Paxton filed a lawsuit last month against Aylo Global—the pornography conglomerate that owns Pornhub—accusing them of violating the law. Rather than implementing age verification, they have since blocked their website to Texas users instead.
Now Paxton is keeping the enforcement coming, suing Multi Media, LLC and Hammy Media, the companies behind websites Chaturbate and xHamster, for failing to comply.
“PornHub has now disabled its website in Texas. 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,” said Paxton.
If it is found that they violated the law, the porn providers could be subject to millions of dollars in fines.
According to the AG’s office, companies violating the age verification requirement are subject to fines of up to $10,000 per day, an additional $10,000 per day if the corporation illegally retains identifying information, and $250,000 if a child is exposed to pornographic content due to not properly verifying a user’s age.
