AUSTIN, Texas—Ken Paxton, the far-right attorney general of the state of Texas, announced today that he has secured a court victory granting his office the authority to demand the "lock" of a domain address of a pornography site for non-compliance with the state's sweeping age verification laws.
Kick Online Entertainment, the company that owns and operates the highly controversial adult tube site Motherless.com, was sued by Paxton’s office in 2024 for failing to comply with age verification requirements laid out in House Bill (HB) 1181.
Since then, the litigation has disintegrated, leading Paxton to seek control over the privately owned domain name that serves adult users both inside and outside Texas.
"This court order establishes a huge precedent that websites can be stripped of their domain if they ignore the law and harm children with pornographic content," Paxton said. "This affirms that protecting children from pornographic content is not only about collecting a penalty but also shutting down websites that refuse to obey the law."
"My office will continue to take action against any website that harms kids by allowing them access to pornographic content," Paxton added.
According to the court order, or the writ of attachment, Kick can regain access to its domain if it pays a $9.14 million bond and issues age verification measures for all users in Texas. Paxton was able to pressure Verisign, the domain registry in which Motherless.com is found, to temporarily lock access until compliance is reached.
Even though Motherless.com is rife with controversy and the centerpiece of a so-called "online rape academy" uncovered by CNN, the precedent set by the court for ultimately allowing regulators and law enforcement to block access to websites for age verification compliance has noteworthy implications. It is also important to note that while this is supposedly a "landmark" court decision, per Paxton’s vernacular, this isn't some novel incident.
Domains are often litigated over for a number of reasons. But the nature of the legal tactic used, a writ of attachment, is also not unique. These types of writs are used during litigation to seize or freeze a defendant's assets in order to secure potential payments or transfers to satisfy court judgments at the end of proceedings.
"The Office of the Attorney General will continue to use every available legal mechanism, including writs of attachment against domain names, to enforce Texas law and ensure that no company, regardless of where it is incorporated, can profit from exposing Texas children to harmful content," Paxton’s office stated.
