Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has escalated his fight against online pornography by filing lawsuits against two major companies — Multi-Media and Hammy Media — for purportedly disregarding Texas law regarding age verification.
The legal action comes as part of Paxton’s ongoing efforts to protect minors from exposure to pornographic material online. The companies in question, which operate adult entertainment sites such as “Chaturbate” and “xHamster,” stand accused of failing to implement adequate age verification systems as required by HB 1181, a Texas law aimed at safeguarding minors from accessing adult content on the internet.
Paxton alleges that the companies have been negligent in screening out and blocking underage users. He is actively seeking an injunction against the companies to enforce proper age verification measures and potentially impose hefty civil penalties for their non-compliance, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
In November 2023, Paxton successfully defended Texas’ right to enforce HB 1181 against legal challenges brought by the pornography industry. Earlier this month, he secured a ruling affirming that the state’s age verification requirement does not infringe upon First Amendment rights, a claim previously asserted by porn companies.
In February 2024, Paxton targeted Aylo Global Entertainment, the operator of the adult website Pornhub, for violating HB 1181, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Rather than comply with the law, Pornhub opted to shut down its services in Texas, a move Paxton claimed was evidence of the effectiveness of Texas legislation in curbing harmful online content.
“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,” Paxton said in a news release.
Under HB 1181, companies found to be in violation of age verification requirements face significant financial penalties. These penalties include fines of up to $10,000 per day, an additional $10,000 per day for illegally retaining user-identifying information, and a $250,000 fine if a minor is exposed to explicit content due to inadequate age verification measures.
“I will continue to aggressively enforce HB 1181,” said Paxton. “All pornography companies lacking proper age verification safeguards on their sites should consider themselves on notice because they’re violating Texas law.”
