Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is suing several porn companies, according to a press release on Tuesday.
Uthmeier states that these porn sites aren't complying with Florida's age-verification law, which went into effect on Jan. 1. The law, HB 3, requires sites that publish a "substantial portion" of material that is "harmful to minors" to use a method to prove that visitors are over 18. HB 3 requires this method to keep personal information anonymous and be conducted by a nongovernmental, independent third party.
Florida's version of age verification is similar to that in other states, but some are more specific in that they require scanning a face or a government ID. These laws started to sprout up in states in 2022, beginning with Louisiana, and since then, free speech advocates and adult industry workers have told Mashable that the laws won't work for their intended purpose. A preliminary study out of NYU also suggests that age-verification laws don't work.
One reason is that they can be circumvented with software like VPNs, so visitors can pretend to be elsewhere. Another is that not every single website will comply.
Now, Uthmeier is suing companies that operate out of the Czech Republic, including the parent companies of XVideos and XNXX:
Webgroup Czech Republic (which operates XVideos)
NKL Associates (XNXX)
Sonesta Technologies, Inc. (BangBros)
Traffic F (an advertising network)
The AG is also suing GGW Group and GTFlix TV, distributors of GirlsGoneWild. The latter apparently also operates out of the Czech Republic.
The press release states that Uthmeier wrote two letters to two of the companies in April, demanding that they comply or face legal action.
"Multiple porn companies are flagrantly breaking Florida's age verification law by exposing children to harmful, explicit content. As a father of young children, and as Attorney General, this is completely unacceptable," Uthmeier stated in the press release. "We are taking legal action against these online pornographers who are willfully preying on the innocence of children for their financial gain."
When SCOTUS upheld Texas's age-verification law in June, experts told Mashable that it was a blow to free speech, as such laws quell adults' free speech, while also not actually stopping minors from accessing porn. Yet, these laws have also extended outside the U.S., as the UK has enacted age verification just last month. Already, internet users have found a way to bypass the law: using a photo of a video game character.
