Here’s a rather curious case: A woman from Kansas is suing the providers of several pornography websites for high damages. After her 14-year-old son secretly used an old laptop to watch adult content, she’s demanding a sum total of $200,000. Sounds weird, right?
As reported by Fox News and later by 404 Media, the mother wanted to prevent her underage child from being exposed to pornographic content while he was still “at an important developmental stage in his life.” She was monitoring all devices closely, but overlooked the fact that an old laptop was still in working order and within the child’s reach.
Since August 2024, her son had been using this laptop to consume “hardcore pornography” on sites like Chaturbate, Jerkmate, and Superporn, all of which are now being sued by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and a Kansas law firm.
The websites should have checked for age
The lawsuit is based on a new law that came into force in Kansas and more than 20 other US states in July 2024, which requires porn sites to verify the ages of their users. These particular porn providers had not complied with this new legislature.
According to the law, any website that offers at least 25 percent of content that’s harmful to minors, including nudity and sexual acts, must set up methods for age and identity verification. As a rule, this is done by means of an ID check or similar.
Also according to the law, legal guardians may take legal action if their children nevertheless gain access to pornography sites. In one case, Chaturbate did have an age verification mechanism set up, but it was apparently “child’s play” to bypass it and the 14-year-old child was able to continue watching videos without any problems.
Mental trauma due to porn consumption
The mother states in the lawsuit that her child has suffered pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, psychological harm, past and future loss of enjoyment and pleasure in life, and past and future costs for necessary medical care and treatment, all due to the consumption of hardcore pornographic content.
She’s therefore seeking $50,000 in damages in each of four separate lawsuits against four different pornography providers, for a sum total of $200,000. One of the providers, the company Multi Media LLC, describes the lawsuit as “completely unfounded” but could quickly have problems arguing its case in court if its age verification mechanisms don’t comply with the legal requirements.
In any case, the law on US state age verification for adult content (which can be read here) requires adult site providers to use a database that’s regularly used by businesses or government agencies for the purpose of age and identity verification, or is otherwise appropriate for age verification. The court must now decide whether this was the case.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.