AUSTIN, Texas — A district court in Texas has issued a writ requiring domain registry Verisign to “lock” an adult website’s domain over noncompliance with the state’s age verification law.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Texas’ 459th Civil District Court issued the order shuttering domain motherless.com, after site operator Kick Online Entertainment failed to implement age verification of users and pay civil penalties.
The order appears to be the first instance of a domain seizure by a state for age verification violations.
According to a press release issued Wednesday by the office of Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas sued Kick Online Entertainment for violating the state’s age verification law and obtained a default judgment and permanent injunction requiring the company to implement AV measures and pay fines. Kick Online, the release states, “ignored the lawsuit and refused to comply with the court’s order.”
Under the new order, Kick may not regain access to the domain unless it posts a $9.14 million bond, implements age verification that complies with Texas law, and pays the civil penalties previously awarded in the case.
The website appeared inaccessible on Thursday, but a version using a different top-level domain remained viewable and included a notice advising viewers about the change of web address.
This is not the first time Kick Online has incurred legal or regulatory attention. In February, U.K. media regulator Ofcom fined the company more than $1 million for failing to implement age checks as required for compliance with the Online Safety Act. According to Ofcom, Kick Online did eventually implement age assurance for U.K. users that the agency deemed “capable of being highly effective.”
Paxton Claims to Set Legal Precedent
The press release from Paxton’s office hails the order as “a landmark.”
“This legal victory establishes a significant precedent for enforcing age verification laws against non-compliant foreign operators,” the release reads. “This writ demonstrates that Texas has the legal authority and the proven tools to reach beyond its borders and hold foreign operators accountable.”
Kick Online Entertainment is registered in Costa Rica. A June 10 letter from Paxton’s office to the Travis County District Clerk asks that the ordered writ be issued to the company in that country or “Wherever the Defendant may be found.”
Paxton — who is well known to industry observers as the respondent in the pivotal case Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which upheld the constitutionality of state AV laws — responded to the order by asserting, “This court order establishes a huge precedent that websites can be stripped of their domain if they ignore the law and harm children with pornographic content.”
While the new order may indeed prove persuasive to other courts, it does not constitute binding precedent as a higher court’s decision would. The issue of states’ jurisdiction over sites based in other states and countries continues to be the subject of litigation.
Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that adult site SuperPorn violated Kansas’ age verification law, citing lack of jurisdiction after similarly dismissing two related cases earlier this year. In that case, the court found that the absence of “intentional conduct targeting Kansas” meant that the court lacked specific personal jurisdiction over the defendant.
Meanwhile, the state of Kansas itself is suing SARJ LLC, alleging that the company’s adult websites — including metart.com, sexart.com, and vivthomas.com — have failed to implement age verification as mandated by the same Kansas state law. SARJ has highlighted the jurisdiction issue that resulted in dismissal of the other suits, but it remains to be seen whether the court will apply the same jurisprudence to a suit brought by the state.
In May, WebGroup Czech Republic, the parent company of XVideos, XNXX, BangBros, and GirlsGoneWild, settled a lawsuit filed by the state of Florida over those sites’ alleged failure to age verify Florida users before allowing access to adult content.
