AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two more adult websites are facing lawsuits from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office over accusations they’re not following the state’s age verification law, the latest effort to legally go after internet porn providers.
The Office of the Attorney General filed two civil lawsuits Tuesday afternoon in Travis County against the respective companies that own the websites xHamster and Chaturbate. Paxton said they’re not doing enough to stop those younger than 18 from looking at the adult content.
Paxton’s office would like a court to issue a permanent injunction against the two websites and force them to pay hefty fines if they don’t come into compliance with House Bill 1181, which went into effect on Sept. 1 last year. It requires age verification measures to protect minors from what the law’s supporters called exposure to sexually obscene materials.
KXAN reached out Wednesday afternoon for comment from Hammy Media and Multi Media, the two companies that own the websites in question and are named in the lawsuits. This story will be updated once any responses are shared.
These lawsuits come almost a week after Pornhub, the well-known adult website, announced it would disable access to Texas completely over opposition to the law. Paxton also filed a separate lawsuit against the company that owns that website, and he celebrated the news about Pornhub shutting down in the state.
“Sites like PornHub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children,” Paxton posted on his X account. “We recently secured a major victory against PornHub and other sites that sought to block this law from taking effect. In Texas, companies cannot get away with showing porn to children. If they don’t want to comply, good riddance.”
The state’s latest lawsuit notes visitors to the xHamster website are met with a pop-up message where they have to click a button confirming they’re older than 18. However, Paxton’s office claims that’s not enough to follow the new law.
“Minors can simply click almost anywhere on the webpage away from the ‘I’m 18 or older’ button, including the ‘X’ in the top right corner of the message, to dismiss the pop-up message
and proceed to the Defendant’s pornographic website,” the lawsuit explains. “The age verification methods used by the Defendant on its websites cannot be said to verify anything at all, and they wholly fail to comply with the requirements of Chapter 129B.”
The state is asking the court for xHamster to pay a civil penalty of up to $1.67 million as well as an additional $10,000 a day since the lawsuit’s filing.
Texas is seeking a higher civil penalty from the company that owns Chaturbate — $1.78 million along with the $10,000 a day for every day after the filing of the lawsuit.
It’s unclear when or if hearings will be held related to these two lawsuits, but KXAN will keep following and share any updates.
