Four first-of-a-kind lawsuits in Kansas were filed Monday aiming to hold porn websites accountable for violating state law, which mandates they use adequate age-verification systems. There are no federal laws requiring porn sites to verify a user’s age.
The suits, filed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and a Kansas law firm on behalf of a minor child and the child’s mother, are groundbreaking. It is apparently the first time a minor is seeking a legal remedy through the provisions of state age-verification laws for pornographic sites, according to NCOSE’s general counsel.
Kansas is among roughly 20 other states that have enacted age-verification laws for porn sites.
Louisiana became the first in 2023.
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“The Kansas law also allows for a private right of action, meaning that private individuals and organizations can bring cases against offending companies or websites,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach told Fox News Digital. Kobach filed Kansas’s first lawsuit in January against a porn site over a lack of age-verification mechanisms, a case that is ongoing.
“I think the combination of my office’s first action followed by this private action shows that the law is operating as the legislature intended,” Kobach said.
NCOSE sued on behalf of a minor child, whose mother took numerous measures to ensure her 14-year-old child would not be exposed to pornographic websites but later learned her child was using an old laptop to access the sites. Online algorithms and content-curation processes from these sites’ parent companies, or from contractors working for the sites, drove the teenager to at least two of the sites, according to the initial complaints filed with NCOSE.
According to NCOSE, pornography is harmful to children because it disrupts the natural formation of children’s sexual functions and maturation. Studies have also shown links between pornography and sexual violence and a litany of other health and well-being issues.
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“The parents in this instance thought they did everything right,” NCOSE General Counsel Benjamin Bull said. “It’s not enough just to try to prevent children from gaining access. It’s just a question of when children will gain access.
“They’ll find a way. It’ll either be the kid next door with a kid in school, or an old, you know, thrown-away computer up in the closet some place. And, so, unless these online platforms actually install age verification, this boy’s … what’s happened to him and what’s happened to hundreds of thousands of others is just going to continue and get worse.”
According to the lawsuits filed Monday on behalf of the 14-year-old, at least one of the four pornographic sites being sued, Chaturbate, ostensibly has an age-verification mechanism, but it can be easily manipulated, and that does not satisfy Kansas’ law.
Multi Media LLC, Chaturbate’s parent company, insisted to Fox News Digital the site “is fully compliant” with Kansas law, calling the lawsuit against it “completely baseless.”
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“As we explained in great detail to the plaintiff’s counsel back in November, the company thoroughly investigated the claim and found the individual was never able to view any explicit content on the company’s platform. The platform’s ID verification age gate functioned exactly as expected, and the individual’s attempts to view adult content without first proving he was an adult were entirely thwarted,” a company spokesperson for Multi Media LLC told Fox News Digital.
“The company takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure that the platform only publishes material created and viewed by consenting adults,” the spokesperson added. “Since the law went into effect, the company has displayed an ‘age gate’ page to any visitor who arrives on the site from an IP address that is geolocated in Kansas and who has not previously been verified as an adult, by requiring the individual to provide a government issued photo ID.”
The spokesperson added that Multi Media LLC intends “to seek sanctions” against the plaintiff over its “frivolous complaint,” noting that when the company was first contacted about the allegations by the plaintiff in November, Multi Media LLC explained why suing it was baseless.
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But AG Kobach said the lawsuit brought by the mother and son, along with another unidentified “friend” of the family, shows state law is doing its job.
“I think the really important point, at least from my perspective, is that laws are working, and companies are being taken to task for marketing this material in a way that minors can get it when there are now technologies out there to prevent that from happening,” Kobach told Fox News Digital.
The 14-year-old and his mother, with the help of NCOSE and others, are seeking statutory damages of no less than $50,000 per violation in each of their four lawsuits. They are also seeking actual damages, attorney fees and any “further relief” that the court considers fair.
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