This browser does not support the Video element.
FOX 4 All Day: March 21, 2024
Dallas-Fort Worth news headlines and the weather forecast for March 21, 2024.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued two more pornography companies that he says are violating a Texas age-verification law.
Paxton filed suit against Multi Media LLC and Hammy Media, which operate sites including Chaturbate and xHamster.
The suit says the companies are in violation of House Bill 1181, which requires commercial entities that show sexual material to "use reasonable age verification methods […] to verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older."
READMOER: Pornhub disables Texas users access to the site
Companies that do not comply could be fined up to $10,000 per day, $10,000 more per day if the company illegally retains identifying information and $250,000 if a child views pornographic content without proper verification under the law.
Porn companies sued, saying the law violated the First Amendment, but Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upheld the age-verification requirement in a ruling earlier this month.
The attorney general previously sued Aylo, the parent company of the site Porhub.
Pornhub announced they would disable the site in Texas on March 14.
In a statement the company called HB1181 "ineffective, haphazard and dangerous."
Pornhub decided to disable access to their site in Texas until a real solution is offered, they stated. "The safety of our users is one of our biggest concerns. We believe that the only effective solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users’ age on their devices and to either deny or allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that verification. We call on all adult sites to comply with the law."
Aylo plans to appeal the Fifth Circuit Court's ruling.