Dismissal of age verification lawsuits against porn sites raises questions about Kansas law’s future

Max Kautsch, shown here during an interview on Dec. 12, 2024, is one of the attorneys who defended porn company Titan Websites against recently dismissed lawsuits over Kansas’ age verification requirements. (Photo by Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — The recent dismissal of a pair of lawsuits against porn sites over Kansas’ age verification requirements raises questions about the law’s future after a federal judge ruled the Constitution doesn’t allow the companies to be sued in Kansas because they’re based outside the state.

U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter dismissed the two lawsuits because the sites — whose headquarters are in Washington state and Canada — didn’t purposefully operate in or have ties to Kansas.

Teeter based her Feb. 10 order on constitutional principles that determine state courts have limited power over non-residents under the Fourteenth Amendment’s right to due process.

The lawsuits were among four filed by an anti-porngraphy group on behalf of an anonymous, 14-year-old boy from Olathe — called “Q.R.” in the filings. The boy’s mother said her son had accessed pornographic sites run by the companies, which is against a 2024 Kansas law requiring companies to verify users are at least 18 years old.

Attorneys representing defendant Titan Websites said the ruling shows a state Legislature can’t override the U.S. Constitution.

“The court found that due process requires more of a defendant than merely making a website available in a state before being subject to that state’s laws,” lawyers Jeff Sandman and Max Kautsch said in a written statement.

Legal staff for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, which sued on behalf of the Olathe boy, said at the time of Teeter’s ruling that they disagreed with the judge’s decision and that they were considering filing an appeal. The center did not file an appeal before a court deadline and has not responded to requests for comment since then.

“These cases are just at the beginning stages,” Dani Pinter, director of the legal division for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said in a statement to Kansas Reflector in February.

Another porn company in a third, related lawsuit from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation filed a motion in February to seek dismissal on a lack of personal jurisdiction like Titan, but its motion was denied. The center voluntarily dismissed a fourth, related suit.

A lawsuit filed by Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach against porn companies is still making its way through the courts after the companies’ motion to dismiss based on a lack of personal jurisdiction was denied.

Kobach’s office has not replied to multiple requests for comment on that lawsuit.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly allowed the age verification bill to become law without her signature in 2024, citing legal and constitutional concerns. It received bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Legislature. As written, porn companies could be liable for more than $50,000 in damages if a court determines minors were harmed by accessing their sites.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Texas could enforce a similar age verification law. Opponents argued the law imposes a significant burden on adults who are legally trying to access content that is protected by free speech rights in the First Amendment.

Mike Stabile, director of public policy for the Free Speech Coalition — an adult trade association that challenged the Texas law but is not involved in the Kansas suits — said Teeter’s ruling speaks to the challenge of enforcing the laws. But, he suspects the National Center on Sexual Exploitation will try to find a way forward.

But even as age verification laws are in legal limbo in some states, Stabile noted, they have already destabilized the porn industry.

“These are censorship laws,” Stabile said. “There is a chilling effect in having the threat of litigation. So even though these cases have been dismissed, even though the plaintiffs have failed to appeal, these platforms still have to deal with likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.”

Most consumers are not willing to provide a biometrical scan of their face or upload a government-issued photo ID to porn sites per state requirements. Pornhub, one of the world’s most visited websites, shut down access to their site over age verification laws in about half of the 50 states, including Kansas, in response to age verification laws.

Stabile said his group encourages its members to comply with laws until a court determines they don’t have to.

Even so, age verification laws may not be blocking children from the content lawmakers don’t want them to see. In an early-stages study, researchers found that while minors no longer have access to sites like Pornhub, there was about a 50% increase in searches for smaller platforms that don’t comply with the law. Plus there was about a 24% increase in searches for virtual private networks, which allow users to bypass geo-restrictions.

Stabile said these lawsuits come down to one big question: “Can a single state’s law be used to police speech across the entire internet?”