Pornhub Owner Sued for $1.6 Million on Texas Age Check Claims

The pornography distribution company that operates Pornhub unlawfully exposes Texas children to obscene images before verifying their age, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) alleged in a lawsuit.

Aylo Global Entertainment since September has been violating a new state law in Texas that requires online age verification measures and accordingly should pay civil fines up to $10,000 per day for a running total of $1.6 million, the lawsuit says.

“Texas has a right to protect its children from the detrimental effects of pornographic content,” Paxton said in a statement. “I look forward to holding any company accountable that violates our age verification laws intended to prevent minors from being exposed to harmful, obscene material on the internet.”

Aylo Global Entertainment and Aylo USA Inc. own a large portfolio of pornographic websites, including Brazzers, Men.com, and Trans Angels, the lawsuit says.

Texas new law, HB 1181, was sponsored in the Senate by Paxton’s wife, Sen. Angela Paxton (R). It requires pornographic websites to verify a visitor is 18 years or older. But Paxton says minors visiting Aylo’s sites are immediately presented with sexual material or are asked to “complete the trivial step of clicking an ‘enter’ button,” which he says is often displayed along with sexual material.

The age verification methods “cannot be said to verify anything at all,” Paxton alleges.

Paxton is asking a judge to issue an injunction requiring Aylo to comply with the law.

The lawsuit comes as Paxton awaits a decision from a federal appeals court in a case his office is defending on the age verification law. In that one, a district judge in August blocked the law from going into effect, siding with a nonprofit trade association of adult content performers, producers, distributors, and retailers. But in November, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered that it could go into effect pending Paxton’s appeal.

The case is Texas v. Aylo Global Ent. Inc., Tex. Dist. Ct., docket number unavailable, complaint 2/26/24.