AUSTIN — A Texas court has ordered the domain registry operator Verisign to freeze the “.com” domain of an adult website whose operator failed to comply with Texas’s age-verification law, in what Attorney General Ken Paxton called a “landmark legal victory” for protecting minors from harmful content online.
The writ, obtained in Paxton’s ongoing enforcement case against Luxembourg-based Kick Online Entertainment, directs Verisign to place the domain motherless.com on a registry lock, hold, or similar status, the attorney general’s office said. Under the order, Kick can only regain control of the domain by posting a $9.14 million bond and demonstrating that it has implemented age-verification measures that comply with Texas law and paid the civil penalties previously awarded in the case, according to the release.
Paxton’s office sued Kick Online in April 2024, alleging violations of Texas’s age-verification requirement for websites that publish sexually explicit content. According to the attorney general’s office, Kick Online — which it said “openly describes itself as a ‘moral free’ company” — ignored the lawsuit, prompting the court to enter a Default Judgment and Permanent Injunction ordering the company to implement reasonable age-verification measures and stop making harmful sexual material accessible to minors in Texas. According to Paxton, the company continued operating the site without complying with the order.
“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 in a statement. “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’s office described the writ as evidence that Texas has “the legal authority and the proven tools to reach beyond its borders and hold foreign operators accountable.” The office said it intends to continue using every available legal mechanism, including writs of attachment against domain names, to ensure no company, regardless of where it is incorporated, can profit from exposing Texas children to harmful content.
Texas’s age-verification law, House Bill 1181, requires certain adult websites to verify that users are 18 or older. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in June 2025 in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, rejecting a First Amendment challenge brought by an adult-industry trade group. Similar laws in other states have drawn continuing legal challenges from free-speech and privacy advocates who argue age-verification requirements chill lawful adult speech and pose data-security risks for users required to submit identifying information.
Kick Online, which the UK communications regulator Ofcom has separately investigated over online safety concerns, did not appear in the Texas case and has not publicly responded to the writ. A response from the company or its counsel was not included in the attorney general’s release.
Source: Office of the Texas Attorney General
