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

TOPEKA — The recent dismissal of two lawsuits against porn sites over age verification requirements in Kansas raises questions about the future of the law after a federal judge ruled that the constitution does not allow companies to be sued in Kansas because they are based out of state.

U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter dismissed both lawsuits because the facilities – which are located in Washington state and Canada – were not intentionally operating in or affiliated with Kansas.

Teeter based her Feb. 10 order on constitutional principles that state courts have narrow authority over nonresidents under the Fourteenth Amendment’s right to a fair trial.

The lawsuits were among four filed by an anti-pornography group on behalf of an unnamed 14-year-old boy from Olathe – called “QR” in the suit. The boy’s mother said her son accessed pornographic websites run by the companies, which violates a 2024 Kansas law that requires companies to verify users are over 18 years of age.

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Attorneys representing defendant Titan Websites said the ruling shows that state legislatures cannot override the U.S. Constitution.

“The court found that due process requires a defendant to do more than simply provide a website in a state before he or she becomes subject to that state’s laws,” attorneys Jeff Sandman and Max Kautsch said in a written statement.

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

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

Another pornography company, in a third, related lawsuit filed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, filed a motion to be dismissed in February for lack of personal jurisdiction like Titan’s, but its motion was denied. The center voluntarily dismissed a fourth, related lawsuit.

A lawsuit filed by Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach against pornography companies is still pending in the courts after the companies’ request for relief was denied on the grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction.

Kobach’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly allowed the age verification bill to go into effect without her signature in 2024, citing legal and constitutional concerns. It received bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Legislature. As written, pornography companies could be liable for damages exceeding $50,000 if a court finds that minors were harmed by accessing their sites.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas could enforce a similar age verification law. Opponents argued that the law imposes significant burdens on adults who legally try to access content protected by free speech rights under the First Amendment.

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Mike Stabile, director of public policy at the Free Speech Coalition – an adult trade association that challenged the Texas law but is not involved in the Kansas lawsuits – said Teeter’s ruling highlights the challenge of enforcing the law. But she suspects the National Center on Sexual Exploitation will try to find a solution.

Stabile noted that even though age verification laws are in legal limbo in some states, they have already destabilized the pornography industry.

“These are censorship laws,” Stabile said. “The threat of litigation has a chilling effect. So even though these cases were dismissed and the plaintiffs did not appeal, these platforms still have to deal with legal fees that are likely to amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Most consumers do not want to provide a biometric scan of their face or upload a government-issued photo ID to pornographic sites according to state requirements. Pornhub, one of the most visited websites in the world, has blocked access to its site due to 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 follow the law until a court says they don’t have to.

Still, age verification laws may not block children from accessing content that lawmakers don’t want them to see. In studies at an early stageresearchers found that while minors no longer have access to sites like Pornhub, searches for smaller, illegal platforms have increased by about 50%. Additionally, there has been an approximately 24% augment in searches for virtual private networks, which allow users to bypass geo-restrictions.

Stabile said these lawsuits come down to one substantial question: “Can one state’s law be used to control speech across the Internet?”