Kansas woman sues porn sites after teenage son accessed adult content on old laptop

[midian182]

Why it matters: A Kansas woman is suing several porn sites after her 14-year-old son found an old laptop and used it to browse adult content. The suits claim that the sites violated the state's age-verification laws by allowing the minor access.

Kansas is one of the 20+ states that have current or upcoming laws requiring porn sites to verify users' ages.

The Kansas law requires any site with over 25% of its content deemed "harmful to minors," which covers nudity and sexual content, to verify the age of visitors using a commercially available database or another commercially reasonable method of age and identity verification.

As reported by 404 Media, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and a Kansas law firm filed four lawsuits on behalf of a minor child, the child's mother, and a friend of the family against Chaturbate, Jerkmate, Titan Websites, and Techpump Solutions, also known as Superporn.com.

According to a statement from NCOSE, the mother had been diligent in monitoring her 14-year-old son's devices to prevent his exposure to harmful material during "this important developmental stage of his life."

In August 2024, the boy found an old laptop belonging to a friend of his mother that had been stored and forgotten about in a closet. It was still in working order, and the son used it to access the internet and search for hardcore pornography.

The suits allege that the sites should have had age-verification measures in place to comply with a Kansas law implemented in July 2024, which allows individuals – including parents or guardians – to take legal action against commercial entities, such as websites, that permit access without verifying users' ages.

Chaturbate has an age-verification mechanism, but it can be easily manipulated and that does not satisfy Kansas' law, according to the suit. Its parent company, Multi Media LLC, called the suit "completely baseless," something it told the plaintiff when the company was contacted last November.

The complaint claims that as a result of accessing the sites, the boy has suffered "pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, and mental anguish; psychological injury; past and future loss of enjoyment and pleasure of living; and past and future expenses of necessary medical care and treatment."

The NCOSE says these are the first lawsuits in the US that challenge alleged violators of age verification laws. The organization has previously helped with lawsuits against porn site Xvideos. It also aided with a case against Twitter over allegations it violated the federal sex trafficking statute.

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Kansas woman sues porn sites after teenage son accessed adult content on old laptop

 

[Thatsdisgusting]

OH NO! 14yo kid teen saw a sex.

He better watch that Texas Chainsaw Massacre.mkv stored somewhere on that old laptop, rather than this onlyfans filth!!!

 

[wiyosaya]

Old laptop. Hmmm, maybe the woman should have thought twice before she signed up with the site. All the "effects" she's suing for seem like she hired and ambulance chaser attorney, or at the very least, she is an opportunist looking for a payday. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[dangh]

It is always someone else's fault, isn't it. No matter she raised him as he is, the fault is never on her side, it is always 'them'.
Sure it isn't ok for kid to watch adult content. But it is so tempting and at this age kids just want to know what's that. Proper sexual education with information on such sites, but as well explaining kids properly what happens to their bodies without pretending 'it's a god will' would be the best, but for some reason people there start shooting at everything if someone mention 'a tit'...

 

[pnntmp]

So we have legal porn vs. actual porn.

I have no sympathy for legal porn. These attempts to squeeze money by pretending to be a victim are truly disgusting.

 

[unoficialoficial]

The state should take active measures to avoid what it deems harmful to its citizens and should not rely on external measures to address these issues. One such measure would be to provide a DNS service that blocks websites incompatible with local laws. Citizens could then opt to set this DNS address on their local networks.

A website is subject to the laws of the country where its root server and data are located. It is unrealistic to expect someone to align with all laws worldwide. Even if one were to read 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take years to familiarize oneself with the laws of just a single country.

So, just set a DNS and let the citizens decide if they want to use it or not.

 

[candle86]

It is always someone else's fault, isn't it. No matter she raised him as he is, the fault is never on her side, it is always 'them'.
Sure it isn't ok for kid to watch adult content. But it is so tempting and at this age kids just want to know what's that. Proper sexual education with information on such sites, but as well explaining kids properly what happens to their bodies without pretending 'it's a god will' would be the best, but for some reason people there start shooting at everything if someone mention 'a tit'...

its no different than if the kid went to the gas station and they sold him a playboy without verification of age, which is a crime. At the end of the day the site committed a crime

 

[antiproduct]

Seems like the kinda lawsuit that the attorneys running Project 2025 are anxious to get behind so they could ban porn in the whole country.

 

[stewi0001]

Suing them will not solve anything. It is not like the website intentionally went looking for him. It is a pain but she need to step up as a parent and talk with him about it. However, there might be no changing his desire to check out porn and if there is a will, there is a way.

 

[Kirby1]

I feel bad for the kid. He's definitely going to need therapy, and not from the porn.

 

[brucek]

This must be doing wonders for his social standing. I'm sure all his classmates are checking in with him to see how he is recovering from his unwanted encounter with Jerkmate, Techpump, and the other harmful sites he was tricked into visiting.

 

[nnguy2]

Poor kid...the trauma of being that woman's child.

 

[mgwerner]

"pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, and mental anguish; psychological injury; past and future loss of enjoyment and pleasure of living..."

Sounds like he accessed his mom's Chaterbate page.

 

[MasterAce]

I was a teen in the ’90 and we all knew porn and someone always had a mag stashed somewhere. As far as I know, we all turned up just fine, leading ordinary lives with families, responsibilities etc.

Times change I suppose, I know I’m old when things seemed to be better in the old days…

 

[AnilD]

The parental angle here highlights something bigger — we’re still relying heavily on reactive tools to manage what’s essentially a structural internet design problem. One forgotten laptop and the whole system breaks down.

 

[DukeJukem]

its no different than if the kid went to the gas station and they sold him a playboy without verification of age, which is a crime. At the end of the day the site committed a crime

you just compared a physical human being handing over a physical magazine to a non living website that requires human interraction to navigate and said they were the same thing. you sir, have hit full wee tod.

 

[DukeJukem]

Yea if some 14 year old can pick up a dinosaur laptop and navigate to such an obscure porn website that doesn't have age verification then I'm pretty sure the parent is the issue lol. if you have a 14 year old that knows of porn sites that aren't in the top 5 that doesn't even ask for age...he's got a lot more free time on his hands than you think and you're obviously not paying any attention to the child.

total failure. also if you think about it, this is pretty disgusting. so a kid watches porn and busts one out and his mom gets a paycheck for it....? seems like a weird thing to be paid for but ok. this isn't exploitation at all.