Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is initiating legal proceedings against multiple porn companies, as detailed in a press release issued on Tuesday. Uthmeier asserts that these pornographic sites are failing to comply with Florida’s age-verification law, which is set to take effect on January 1. The law, HB 3, requires that sites containing a “substantial portion” of material considered “harmful to minors” establish a system to confirm that visitors are over 18, while ensuring anonymity and utilizing an independent, nongovernmental third party.

Florida’s age verification law mirrors those in other states, although some states necessitate facial recognition or government ID scanning. These regulations began to emerge in 2022, starting with Louisiana, and have been met with disapproval from advocates of free speech and individuals in the adult industry, who contend that they are ineffective. An initial NYU study also indicates that age-verification laws do not achieve their intended goals.

Such regulations can be circumvented using software such as VPNs, enabling users to disguise their actual locations. Moreover, not all websites adhere to these laws. Uthmeier is currently suing companies located in the Czech Republic, including the parent firms of XVideos and XNXX:

– Webgroup Czech Republic (XVideos)
– NKL Associates (XNXX)
– Sonesta Technologies, Inc. (BangBros)
– Traffic F (an advertising network)

The Attorney General is also pursuing legal action against GGW Group and GTFlix TV, distributors of GirlsGoneWild, which is also said to operate from the Czech Republic. The press release highlights that Uthmeier reached out to two companies in April, demanding compliance or the initiation of legal measures.

“Numerous porn companies are blatantly violating Florida’s age verification statute by exposing minors to harmful, explicit material. As a father of young children, and as Attorney General, this is entirely unacceptable,” Uthmeier remarked. “We are taking legal measures against these online pornographers who are deliberately exploiting the innocence of children for their financial profit.”

When the Supreme Court upheld Texas’s age-verification law in June, experts informed Mashable that this represented a blow to free speech, as such laws limit adults’ free expression without effectively stopping minors from accessing pornography. These regulations have also proliferated beyond the United States, with the UK implementing age verification last month. Internet users have already discovered methods to bypass the law, such as employing an image of a character from a video game.