Texas targets two pornography companies accused of violating state age verification law

AUSTIN, Texas (KBTX) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday announced his office has initiated legal proceedings against the operators of “Chaturbate” and “xHamster”, two prominent pornography websites, for alleged violations of HB 1181, a Texas law mandating adequate age verification measures to shield minors from explicit material.

Paxton is seeking an injunction against Multi Media, LLC, and Hammy Media to require appropriate age verification safeguards.

The companies face potentially millions of dollars in civil penalties for failing to abide by the law, the AG’s office warns.

“I will continue to aggressively enforce HB 1181. All pornography companies lacking proper age verification safeguards on their sites should consider themselves on notice because they’re violating Texas law,” Attorney General Paxton said.

Last week, Pornhub, one of the most visited websites in the world, blocked access to Texas web users from accessing its site.

“Unfortunately the Texas law for age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Not only will it not actually protect children, it will inevitably reduce content creators’ ability to post and distribute legal adult content and directly impact their ability to share the artistic messages they want to convey with it,” said Alex Kekesi, vice president of brand and community at Aylo, Pornhub’s Canadian-based parent company.

In November 2023, Attorney General Paxton won a major victory allowing Texas to enforce HB 1181 after pornography companies sued to block the law. Earlier this month, he won a ruling that Texas’s age verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment—as alleged by the pornography industry.

Paxton said on Thursday, “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.”

Companies violating the age verification requirements required by HB 1181 will be 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, said Paxton’s office.

Read the complaint against Multi Media LLC here, and the complaint against Hammy Media here.