Jamie F
The owner of the adult camming site Chaturbate [very NSFW] has reached a $675,000 legal settlement with the State of Texas, over the site’s alleged lack of compliance with the state’s online pornography age verification rules.
In March 2024, Multi Media LLC, which owns Chaturbate, was sued by Texas authorities for allegedly failing to implement reasonable age verification methods to ensure that minors didn’t access the site. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed Texas introduced tougher online porn age verification laws: part of an online porn crackdown seen across much of the US.
On April 26 the settlement was reached, ending action between the two parties. While $675,000 may not be a company-shattering amount of money for Chaturbate, one of the world’s most-visited cam sites, it shows that US authorities are serious about pursuing damages from businesses that don’t fall in line with new, tougher age verification standards.
Laws requiring more stringent age verification processes on porn sites have been introduced in many US states over the past few years. Pornhub was sued by the State of Texas over age verification, earlier in 2024, and subsequently blocked ‘official’ access to the site in the state. Pornhub has made similar blocks in many other states recently, to avoid falling foul of similar rule changes.
In Texas, following the recent law change, porn sites that fail to implement proper age verification face fines of up to $10,000 per day, plus an extra $10,000 per day if a site illegally keeps users’ personal identifying information. A site can be fined $250,000 if a child is found to have accessed porn on their platform due to insufficient age verification methods.
As well as Pornhub, other perhaps less well-funded porn sites will be noting Chaturbate’s Texas settlement. Industry commentators have noted that while big porn sites may be able to introduce more complex age verification, smaller sites may struggle to afford to comply with new rules.
The settlement also makes Pornhub’s Texas site blocking seem less like grandstanding, and more like a prudent move. Bosses at Pornhub’s parent company Aylo have said that US authorities should be enforcing age verification on phone and computer devices rather than on porn sites.
Since being sued in Texas, Chaturbate has introduced more stringent age verification for its site when accessed in the state.
“It’s a very positive development that this company has decided to follow the law and begin reasonable age verification measures designed to protect Texas children from harmful material. Other pornography companies should follow this example and willingly choose to do the right thing and abide by the law,” Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, said of the Chaturbate settlement.
