Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that his office is investigating multiple pornographic websites for allegedly violating the state's age verification law, which requires platforms to confirm that a minor is 18 years of age or older before granting access.
“Florida is committed to being the best place to raise children. We passed strong legislation to keep kids from being exposed to harmful and toxic material, and instead of following it, these platforms ignored it,” Uthmeier said in a release. “We are taking them to court to make sure they cannot continue bypassing Florida’s common sense safeguards.”
According to the release, Uthmeier filed his complaint against Gethins Limited, Toccata, Inc., Segpay Gateway LLC, Segregated Payments, Inc., and D/B/A Segpay, as well as Aylo Holdings USA Corp., Aylo Billings US Corp., Aylo Group Ltd, and Nutaku Entertainment Ltd.
The attorney general is accusing both Defendants of failing to implement safeguards required to verify a person's age before allowing access to pornographic material, as codified in Florida Statutes 501.1737 and 501.1738.
Florida passed HB 3 last year, which requires pornographic websites showing sexual content to have an age verification process.
More specifically, Uthmeier accused xh.lustyheroes.com of showing pornographic video game content on its website without any safeguards for minors.
The other complaint also alleges that the Defendants operating SpiceVids.com and Nutaku.net do not have an age verification process.
Both pornographic websites are part of several companies owned by the defendants, which include PornHub.com, RedTube.com, Tube8.com, and YouPorn.com. SpiceVids, PornHub, RedTube, Tube8, and YouPorn.
"These websites run unchecked and continue to violate Florida’s age verification law; they rack up numerous violations and continue to build a vast and lucrative Florida user base that includes vulnerable children and teens," the release noted.
The complaint is asking a court to do the following:
- Enter a ruling in favor of Uthmeier and against the Defendants;
- Temporarily and permanently enjoin the Defendants to avert future violations of Section 501.1737(a) and 501.2025, Florida Statutes, and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA);
- Require both Defendants to comply with Florida’s Age Verification laws and FDUTPA;
- Give civil penalties, attorney’s fees, and costs as authorized under Sections 501.1737(5)(a) and 501.2075, Florida Statutes; and
- Grant such other and further legal or equitable relief as justice necessitates
Under Florida law, both defendants could face penalties of up to $50,000 fine per violation.
