Florida sued five pornography companies on Tuesday for failing to verify users’ ages.
“Multiple porn companies are flagrantly breaking Florida’s age-verification law by exposing children to harmful, explicit content,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on X.
“We are taking legal action against these online pornographers who are willfully preying on the innocence of children for their financial gain.”
Florida became the tenth state to pass an age-verification law in March 2024. It requires companies that publish a “substantial” amount of adult content — more than one-third of its total product — use age-verification to ensure online viewers are over 18 years old.
The state investigates and prosecutes violations of the law as “unfair and deceptive business practices” under Florida’s consumer protection statutes. Regulated companies can face up to $50,000 in fines for every user they fail to screen; repeat offenders can be charged even more in punitive damages.
In a press release, Uthmeier alleged four porn companies and one porn advertiser, all of which maintain websites with a “substantial” amount of sexually explicit content, have knowingly and “openly defied” the law since Florida began enforcing it on January 1.
Two of the companies reportedly own free porn sites that receive “several million” visits from Floridians every month.
Uthmeier is the first state attorney general to sue porn companies for failing to check viewers’ ages following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which found age-verification laws do not violate the constitution.
Free Speech Coalition (FSC), which represents more than a dozen pornography companies, challenged Texas’ age-verification law in 2023 for violating pornographers’ freedom of speech and adults’ right to access material inappropriate for minors.
FSC appealed Paxton all the way to the Supreme Court, which heard the case in January. The justices ruled six-three against the coalition on June 27.
“States have long used age-verification requirements to reconcile their interest in protecting children from sexual material with adults’ right to avail themselves of such material,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the conservative majority.
“[Texas’ age-verification law] simply adapts this approach to the digital age.”
Read the Daily Citizen’s analysis of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Paxton.
The Court’s long-awaited ruling gives states like Florida permission to go after porn companies that refuse to uphold even the most basic child safety protections.
It’s excellent news for parents, legislators and child safety advocates. For the porn industry, it’s a hefty blow. When Louisiana passed America’s first age-verification law in 2022, traffic to Pornhub.com from that state reportedly dropped 80%.
Attorney General Uthmeier is sending an important message to porn companies and other businesses that platform explicit content online: Minors are no longer an easy pay day in Florida.
Let’s hope more states with age-verification laws will follow suit (pun intended).
Additional Articles and Resources
Supreme Court Upholds Age-Verification Law
Pornography Age Verification Laws — What They Are and Which States have Them
Porn Companies Sued for Violating Kansas Age Verification Law
Pornography is Bad for Humans. The Progressive Left Can’t Afford to Admit It.
Porn Companies Condition viewers to Desire Illegal and Abusive Content
Proposed SCREEN Act Could Protect Kids from Porn
A Mother’s Sensibility at the Supreme Court Regarding Pornography
