Minor's lawsuits against adult sites show new state law is working as intended to protect kids: state AG
Four first-of-a-kind lawsuits in Kansas were filed Monday aiming to hold porn websites accountable for violating state law, which mandates they use adequate age-verification systems. There are no federal laws requiring porn sites to verify a user's age.
The suits, filed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and a Kansas law firm on behalf of a minor child and the child's mother, are groundbreaking. It is apparently the first time a minor is seeking a legal remedy through the provisions of state age-verification laws for pornographic sites, according to NCOSE's general counsel.
Kansas is among roughly 20 other states that have enacted age-verification laws for porn sites.
Louisiana became the first in 2023.
Social Media Giant Hit With Scathing Ad Campaign Amid Anger Over Ai Chatbots Sexually Exploiting Kids
"The Kansas law also allows for a private right of action, meaning that private individuals and organizations can bring cases against offending companies or websites," Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach told Fox News Digital. Kobach filed Kansas's first lawsuit in January against a porn site over a lack of age-verification mechanisms, a case that is ongoing.
Read On The Fox News App
"I think the combination of my office's first action followed by this private action shows that the law is operating as the legislature intended," Kobach said.
NCOSE sued on behalf of a minor child, whose mother took numerous measures to ensure her 14-year-old child would not be exposed to pornographic websites but later learned her child was using an old laptop to access the sites. Online algorithms and content-curation processes from these sites' parent companies, or from contractors working for the sites, drove the teenager to at least two of the sites, according to the initial complaints filed with NCOSE.
According to NCOSE, pornography is harmful to children because it disrupts the natural formation of children's sexual functions and maturation. Studies have also shown links between pornography and sexual violence and a litany of other health and well-being issues.
Gop Lawmakers Target Online Pornography, Propose Interstate Ban On Obscene Content
"The parents in this instance thought they did everything right," NCOSE General Counsel Benjamin Bull said. "It's not enough just to try to prevent children from gaining access. It's just a question of when children will gain access.
"They'll find a way. It'll either be the kid next door with a kid in school, or an old, you know, thrown-away computer up in the closet some place. And, so, unless these online platforms actually install age verification, this boy's … what's happened to him and what's happened to hundreds of thousands of others is just going to continue and get worse."
According to the lawsuits filed Monday on behalf of the 14-year-old, at least one of the four pornographic sites being sued, Chaturbate, ostensibly has an age-verification mechanism, but it can be easily manipulated, and that does not satisfy Kansas' law.
Multi Media LLC, Chaturbate's parent company, insisted to Fox News Digital the site "is fully compliant" with Kansas law, calling the lawsuit against it "completely baseless."
Porn Case In The Supreme Court This Week Is About Protecting Children, Says Republican Ag
"As we explained in great detail to the plaintiff's counsel back in November, the company thoroughly investigated the claim and found the individual was never able to view any explicit content on the company's platform. The platform's ID verification age gate functioned exactly as expected, and the individual's attempts to view adult content without first proving he was an adult were entirely thwarted," a company spokesperson for Multi Media LLC told Fox News Digital.
"The company takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure that the platform only publishes material created and viewed by consenting adults," the spokesperson added. "Since the law went into effect, the company has displayed an 'age gate' page to any visitor who arrives on the site from an IP address that is geolocated in Kansas and who has not previously been verified as an adult, by requiring the individual to provide a government issued photo ID."
The spokesperson added that Multi Media LLC intends "to seek sanctions" against the plaintiff over its "frivolous complaint," noting that when the company was first contacted about the allegations by the plaintiff in November, Multi Media LLC explained why suing it was baseless.
Click Here For The Fox News App
But AG Kobach said the lawsuit brought by the mother and son, along with another unidentified "friend" of the family, shows state law is doing its job.
"I think the really important point, at least from my perspective, is that laws are working, and companies are being taken to task for marketing this material in a way that minors can get it when there are now technologies out there to prevent that from happening," Kobach told Fox News Digital.
The 14-year-old and his mother, with the help of NCOSE and others, are seeking statutory damages of no less than $50,000 per violation in each of their four lawsuits. They are also seeking actual damages, attorney fees and any "further relief" that the court considers fair.Original article source: Minor's lawsuits against adult sites show new state law is working as intended to protect kids: state AG
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
11 minutes ago
- Fox News
Florida teacher, 28, accused of sending lewd photo to middle school student via social media
A Florida middle school teacher allegedly sent a nude image of herself to a 14-year-old student, authorities said. Oliver Fell, 28, who taught at Carlos E. Haile Middle School in Brandenton, is charged with lewd conduct with a student by an authority figure and transmission of harmful material to a minor, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said. Investigators launched a probe in March after the student reported the allegations on March 3 to a school resource deputy that Fell had been allegedly talking with the boy via Snapchat since December 2024. She allegedly sent an explicit photo of her breasts to the student on Jan. 2. The allegations were reported to the School District of Manatee County and the sheriff's office. "After obtaining a search warrant and receiving permission to access data from phones and social media accounts, detectives discovered evidence indicating that the communications led to lewd conduct involving the victim," the sheriff's office said. Fell turned herself in to authorities on Monday after a warrant was issued for her arrest. She remains in custody on a $2,500 bond. Irene Nikitopoulos, the principal at Carlos E. Haile Middle School, acknowledged the matter in a letter to parents. She said it "took several weeks of investigation to confirm the allegations of the illegal communications" and that Fell was reassigned. She said the district continues to cooperate with the investigation. Fox News Digital has reached out to the school district.
CBS News
11 minutes ago
- CBS News
ICE arrests under Trump top 100,000 as officials expand aggressive efforts to detain migrants
Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Trump's second term topped 100,000 this week, as federal agents intensified efforts to detain unauthorized immigrants in courthouses, worksites and communities across the U.S., internal government data obtained by CBS News shows. On Tuesday and Wednesday, ICE recorded more than 2,000 arrests each day, a dramatic increase from the daily average of 660 arrests reported by the agency during Mr. Trump's first 100 days back at the White House, the federal statistics show. During President Biden last year in office, ICE averaged roughly 300 daily arrests, according to agency data. The latest numbers show ICE is getting closer to meeting the far-reaching demands of top administration officials like White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who has forcefully pushed the agency to conduct "a minimum" of 3,000 arrests each day. On Wednesday morning, ICE was holding around 54,000 immigrant detainees in detention facilities across the country, according to the data. The Trump administration is asking Congress to give ICE billions of dollars in extra funds to hire thousands of additional deportation officers and expand detention capacity to hold 100,000 individuals at any given point. Officials are also looking at converting facilities inside military bases into immigration detention centers. The marked increase in ICE arrests across the country — especially in major Democratic-led cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration officials — comes after the Trump administration replaced two of the agency's top leaders amid internal frustrations that arrests numbers were not high enough. CBS News reached out to the representatives for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment. Trump administration officials have framed the aggressive expansion of immigration operations as necessary to fulfill the president's signature campaign promises of cracking down on illegal immigration, expelling immigrants with criminal histories and overseeing the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. But to boost arrest numbers, ICE has resorted to more aggressive — and controversial — tactics that have triggered outrage and even confrontations in some communities. Those efforts include arrests of migrants and asylum-seekers showing up to court hearings or check-in appointments that the government instructed them to attend. Immigration lawyers have strongly denounced those arrests, saying they deter migrants from complying with the legal process. Immigration roundups at some worksites have also been reported recently. Videos of some ICE arrests have depicted sobbing women and children being escorted into vehicles outside of immigration courts. Footage has also captured community members confronting federal agents — some of them masked — as they take migrants into custody. One video showed construction workers suspected of being in the U.S. illegally lined up after an ICE-led operation on their worksite in Florida. And while ICE has been arresting many immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and also have criminal records, the agency is simultaneously detaining non-criminal migrants living in the U.S. without proper documents — including longstanding residents — amid the Trump administration's pressure to increase arrest levels. Among them is Marcelo Gomes, an 18-year-old Brazilian-born high school student in Milford, Massachusetts, who was arrested by ICE last week on his way to volleyball practice. While ICE has acknowledged that agents were looking for his father when they arrested Gomes, it has kept the teenager in detention, saying he's in the U.S. illegally. Gomes' lawyer said her client initially lived in the U.S. on a temporary visa that had since lapsed. Before Mr. Trump took office, someone like Gomes would likely not have been arrested by ICE, given his age, his lack of any criminal record and the fact that he came to the U.S. as a child over a decade ago. But the Trump administration has reversed Biden-era restrictions on ICE operations that directed the agency to largely focus on detaining serious criminals, recent arrivals and national security threats, like suspected terrorists. While ICE employees have spearheaded Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown, the agency is receiving support from other federal agencies as part of an unprecedented effort by the administration to muster manpower and resources from across the government for immigration enforcement. The federal agencies now helping ICE arrest unauthorized immigrants include Customs and Border Protection; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the Internal Revenue Service. The Trump administration has also enlisted local and state law enforcement officials in friendly jurisdictions like Florida to support ICE operations.
CNN
11 minutes ago
- CNN
DHS halts ‘Quiet Skies' program following Republican claims it was used against political opponents
A program designed to flag travelers for potential extra screening and monitoring at airports and on airplanes will be discontinued, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday. The program recently came under attack from Republicans after it was revealed that prior to her appointment to lead the US Intelligence Community, Tulsi Gabbard was temporarily placed on the 'Quiet Skies' list – a process that can occur because of a number of different factors, including travel patterns. Being on the list does not mean an individual is suspected or accused of wrongdoing. Quiet Skies has long been the source of negative publicity for TSA, according to a former US official. But officials have seen it as valuable because it allows the agency to order extra security checks for certain people based on specific intelligence. 'It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration — weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends,' Noem said in her statement announcing the program's end. 'I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of US national security.' As CNN previously reported, Gabbard was quickly removed from the list after going public last year with claims she had been added to a 'secret terror watchlist' – saying she was placed on the list for criticizing then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. US officials told CNN that to have a nominee for a top position — much less the director of national intelligence — placed on a government watchlist of any kind was highly unusual, if not unprecedented. It remains unclear why Gabbard was placed on the list and subsequently removed. The Quiet Skies algorithm looks at travel patterns, foreign connections and other data in a variety of government holdings, and if triggered, leads to additional security screening at the airport by Air Marshals. But it is not associated with the FBI's terrorist watch list. Security officials from multiple agencies previously told CNN that the program is known inside the government for having far laxer standards for inclusion. The program was only one part of airport security and other screening lists still exist inside of the department. In a press release Thursday, DHS said the program 'was used to target political opponents and benefit political allies.' 'TSA will continue performing important vetting functions tied to legitimate commercial aviation security threats to both ensure the safety of the American traveler and uphold its statutory obligations,' the department said.
