Texas authorities have made Verisign, the registry operator for the .COM generic top-level domain, suspend a domain name used by a porn website. According to Domain Name Wire, Texas law requires websites containing “sexual material harmful to minors” to verify the age of their users. While age verification is common practice, the Texas legislation is particularly stringent. It goes beyond simply asking users to confirm that they are over 18 by checking a box. Instead, users must either upload a government-issued ID proving their age or complete verification through a specialized third-party service that uses comparable methods.
In April 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Kick Online Entertainment, which owns a website that had failed to implement the required age verification measures. The company neither responded to the lawsuit nor appeared in court. As a result, Texas authorities obtained a court-ordered writ requiring Verisign to suspend the domain name associated with the website.
Kick Online Entertainment now faces significant hurdles in regaining control of its domain. In order to do so, it must first post a $9.14 million bond, then pay the civil penalties previously imposed by the court, and finally implement an age verification system that complies with Texas law.
