AUSTIN, Texas — Hammy Media, parent company of xHamster, has settled a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas over alleged noncompliance with the state’s age verification law, agreeing to pay a $120,000 penalty.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the suit in 2024. The original complaint against xHamster alleged, “Minors can simply click almost anywhere on the webpage away from the ‘I’m 18 or older’ button, including the ‘X’ in the top right corner of the message, to dismiss the pop-up message and proceed to the Defendant’s pornographic website ... The age verification methods used by the Defendant on its websites cannot be said to verify anything at all.”
Texas initially asked the state’s 53rd Civil District Court to require xHamster to pay a civil penalty of up to $1.67 million, plus up to $10,000 a day for each day after the date of filing.
Litigation over age verification laws in some states was put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court weighed their constitutionality in FSC v. Paxton, the Free Speech Coalition’s challenge to Texas’ AV law. In March of this year, the court ruled in favor of Texas in that pivotal case, declaring the Texas law — and by extension, similar state age verification laws around the country — constitutional. The decision reactivated some pending cases.
The agreed final order, dated Nov. 7, notes that “Promptly after suit was filed, on March 21, 2024, Hammy Media restricted access to its website” and that the company has since implemented age verification as required by Texas law. The order “resolves any and all claims based on the facts alleged in the State’s Petition” and stipulates that the agreement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing.
Texas filed similar suits against Chaturbate parent company Multi Media and Pornhub parent company Aylo in 2024 as well. Chaturbate settled with the state of Texas in April 2024; the Aylo suit remains open.