TEXAS, USA — Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he’s suing two more companies that operate adult websites, alleging they’re not following a new Texas law that requires them to have age verification measures.
Paxton is suing MultiMedia LLC and Hammy Media, which operate websites including “Chaturbate” and “xHamster,” according to a press release from the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
The new lawsuits came a week after the adult website Pornhub disabled website access to users in Texas to comply with the new law, HB 1181, which requires adult websites to “use reasonable age verification methods…to verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older.”
HB 1181 created a $10,000-per-day fine for violators.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 1181 into law last June and it was set to take effect in September, but it was held up in court. Pornhub and other organizations sued Texas after the law’s passage last year and got an injunction from a district court, but Paxton appealed and was granted a stay, allowing the age verification requirement to be enforced.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the age verification requirement was Constitutional and didn’t violate the First Amendment.
“Applying rational-basis review, the age verification requirement is rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in preventing minors’ access to pornography,” the ruling read. “Therefore, the age verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling halted enforcement of a provision of HB 1181 that required adult websites to display notices warning of the possible effects of pornography on mental health, though.
“The health warnings compel speech, so they are subject to, and fail strict scrutiny,” the ruling read.
Last week, as reported by our sister station KHOU, Pornhub put up a landing page for users in Texas explaining why they disabled access.
"As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website," the message on Pornhub.com said.
The message said the company believes the law is an impingement "on the rights of adults to access protected speech."
It went on to say, "We call on all adult sites to comply with the law. Until the real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Texas. In doing so, we are complying with the law, as we always do, but hope that governments around the world will implement laws that actually protect the safety and security of users."
The lawsuit against Pornhub’s parent company seeks damages of up to $1.6 million, the lawsuit against Multi Media LLC seeks damages of up to nearly $1.8 million, and the lawsuit against Hammy Media seeks damages of up to nearly $1.7 million, court records show.
(Note: this video was published March 15)
