With the Supreme Court decision ruling that states can require providers of explicit content to verify the age of users, Florida has moved to hold porn providers accountable for refusing to comply with its law designed to protect children from accessing explicit online content.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed lawsuits against five pornography companies, accusing them of failing to comply with a state law requiring websites that host adult content to verify the ages of users accessing their platforms.
The legal action, filed this past Tuesday, targets four adult content publishers and one advertiser. All are accused of violating a Florida law passed in March 2024 that mandates age verification for platforms where more than one-third of the content is sexually explicit.
“Multiple porn companies are flagrantly breaking Florida’s age-verification law by exposing children to harmful, explicit content,” Uthmeier said in a statement posted on X. “We are taking legal action against these online pornographers who are willfully preying on the innocence of children for their financial gain.”
The state law, which took effect on Jan. 1, requires adult content platforms to implement systems that verify a user is at least 18 years old before granting access to explicit material. According to Florida officials, failure to comply with the law constitutes an “unfair and deceptive business practice” under state consumer protection statutes.
Violators can face civil penalties of up to $50,000 for each user they fail to screen. Repeat violations may result in enhanced punitive damages, the attorney general’s office said.
The lawsuits mark the first known effort by a state attorney general to enforce an age-verification law against pornographic websites since a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld states’ rights to require providers of online adult content check everyone’s age to ensure that minors can’t access the material.
In a press release announcing the lawsuits, Uthmeier alleged the companies had “openly defied” the law despite being fully aware of its requirements. Two of the companies own free pornographic websites that reportedly receive “several million” visits from Florida users each month, according to the attorney general’s office.
Florida’s law is part of a growing national trend aimed at shielding children from online pornography. The Sunshine State was the 10th state in the nation to adopt such legislation, with Louisiana, which enacted its age-verification law in 2022, having been the first. The latter law reportedly caused an 80 percent drop in traffic from Louisiana to Pornhub.com, one of the most-visited porn sites in the world.
By May 2025, 24 states had passed similar age-verification legislation, and it’s expected that more will follow by the end of the year.
The constitutionality for these laws was affirmed by the Supreme Court in June with its ruling in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, a case that challenged a similar Texas statute. The Court sided with Texas, rejecting claims by the Free Speech Coalition, a trade group representing pornographic content creators and distributors, that age-verification laws violate the First Amendment.
“States have long used age-verification requirements to reconcile their interest in protecting children from sexual material with adults’ right to avail themselves of such material,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the 6-3 opinion for the majority. “[Texas’ age-verification law] simply adapts this approach to the digital age.”
The ruling gave states broader legal authority to impose age-verification standards without contradicting constitutional free speech protections. It also gave a green light to states that had been hesitant to enforce similar laws while legal challenges were still working their way through the courts.
Florida officials say the Supreme Court’s ruling provides a firm foundation for the state’s enforcement efforts.
“The Court’s long-awaited ruling gives states like Florida permission to go after porn companies that refuse to uphold even the most basic child safety protections,” Uthmeier said in his statement.
Under the law, any website or digital platform that offers a substantial amount of explicit content must put mechanisms in place to confirm users are 18 or older. The attorney general’s office did not disclose the names of the companies being sued, but said they collectively maintain websites that qualify under the statutory threshold.
The lawsuits also shows that Florida is more than willing to crack down on companies that refuse to follow that law and do their part to protect minors from harmful content. Uthmeier framed the lawsuits as part of a larger effort to make the internet safer for children and hold tech and media companies accountable.
“It’s excellent news for parents, legislators and child safety advocates,” Uthmeier said. “For the porn industry, it’s a hefty blow.”
Digital child safety advocates welcomed the lawsuits as a significant milestone in the effort to protect minors from unfiltered access to explicit material. Several have argued that pornography is often a child’s first exposure to sexual content and that unrestricted online access can have long-term psychological and behavioral effects.
Uthmeier’s lawsuits are expected to attract national attention as other states weigh how aggressively to pursue enforcement of their own age-verification laws. With the Supreme Court’s ruling establishing legal precedent, Florida’s action may serve as a test case for similar initiatives elsewhere.
“Attorney General Uthmeier is sending an important message to porn companies and other businesses that platform explicit content online,” the press release stated. “Minors are no longer an easy pay day in Florida.”
In fact, Pornhub announced that it would shut down in Florida, as it has in other states with age verification laws, rather than try to comply, which Daily Wire pundit Michael describes as “telling.”
Age verification laws for minors are common sense. Americans can’t go to Barnes and Noble or a newsstand and buy porn magazines without showing an ID proving they are old enough. So why should online content be any different?
From a biblical perspective, the protection of children is a spiritual imperative. Scripture speaks directly to the importance of guarding the innocence of the young. In Matthew 18:6, Jesus warns, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Pornography, easily accessible online without age checks, directly threatens this innocence. It distorts God’s design for human sexuality, which is meant to be expressed within the sacred covenant of marriage between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24, Hebrews 13:4). When children are exposed to graphic sexual content at a young age, it undermines their ability to form healthy relationships, wounds their conscience, and opens the door to shame, confusion, and emotional trauma.
The role of government, from a Christian worldview, includes the restraint of evil and the promotion of justice (Romans 13:1-4). Florida’s enforcement of age-verification laws reflects this biblical principle by establishing barriers to harm and holding companies accountable for profiting off sin at children’s expense.
Families must remain vigilant, but they should not stand alone. Laws like Florida’s affirm that society still has the will to protect what is good and innocent. Christians and individual churches can support this by advocating for policies that uphold biblical values, discipling parents in digital discernment, and providing healing for those already harmed.
This is more than a political fight. Protecting children from pornography is a spiritual battle for the hearts of the next generation.
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