Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is filing of two complaints against online platforms accused of openly violating Florida’s age verification law, which requires pornographic websites to verify users’ ages before granting access.
“Florida is committed to being the best place to raise children. We passed strong legislation to keep kids from being exposed to harmful and toxic material, and instead of following it, these platforms ignored it,” said Uthmeier. “We are taking them to court to make sure they cannot continue bypassing Florida’s common sense safeguards.”
The Office of the Attorney General filed a complaint against Gethins Limited, Toccata, Inc., Segpay Gateway LLC, Segregated Payments, Inc., and D/B/A Segpay. A second complaint was filed against Aylo Holdings USA Corp., Aylo Billings US Corp., Aylo Group Ltd, and Nutaku Entertainment Ltd. Both complaints allege that the defendants failed to implement the safeguards required to verify users’ ages before granting access to pornographic material.
Violations of Florida’s age-verification law carry penalties of up to $50,000 fine per violation.
Last year, Florida enacted HB 3, requiring commercial entities that distribute sexually explicit material online that is harmful to minors to verify that individuals attempting to access the material are at least 18 years of age.
Several companies have not yet put age-verification protocols in place.