A Travis County judge has ordered the domain name of a pornography website owned by Kick Online Entertainment locked down until the company posts a $9.14 million bond and installs age-verification tools that satisfy Texas law. The move stems from litigation brought by the Texas attorney general and is being treated as one of the most aggressive uses so far of state power over internet domains.
What the court ordered
A Travis County district court judge directed the site's domain registry to lock the web address and ruled that Kick cannot take back control until it both implements age checks and posts a $9.14 million bond, according to FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the order as setting "a huge precedent" that websites can lose their domains if they ignore the law and allow minors to reach pornographic content, his office said.
How the domain was halted
Reporting from Domain Name Wire says the state obtained a court writ directing the .com registry Verisign to suspend the domain. Any restoration is tied to posting the bond, putting in place age verification that complies with Texas rules, and satisfying civil penalties from a default judgment. In practice, the move forces the operator to choose between investing in strict identity checks or staying offline for Texas users until the bond is on file.
Supreme Court backing cleared the path
The order follows a June 2025 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld Texas's age-verification law, clearing away a major constitutional challenge and opening the door for state attorneys general to bring enforcement cases, according to CBS News. Supporters argue the law is a necessary shield for children. Opponents warned that the ruling could significantly broaden state control over online speech and users' privacy.
Kick's recent regulatory trouble abroad
Kick Online Entertainment is not new to regulators' crosshairs. The UK media regulator Ofcom fined the company £800,000 in February 2026 for failing to put in place required age assurance controls, the regulator said in a public notice. That penalty, along with investigations in other countries, highlights growing worldwide pressure on adult-content platforms to adopt identity-based age checks.
Legal implications and civil-liberties concerns
Digital-rights advocates say this kind of crackdown comes with serious tradeoffs. They argue that forcing ID-style age gates or taking away domains risks turning key internet services into surveillance choke points and barriers to lawful adult speech. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has detailed how age-verification mandates can threaten online anonymity, and the ACLU has repeatedly argued that the Texas law burdens adults' access to protected content. These groups say courts and regulators should weigh child-safety goals against the potential damage to privacy and free expression.
What comes next
The company can try to reclaim the domain by posting the $9.14 million bond and showing that it has rolled out Texas-compliant age checks. It could also keep leaning on a different strategy and block access from Texas IP addresses instead of complying, a tactic some sites have already used, per FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth. State officials say they plan to keep pursuing enforcement against operators that do not follow the law while the broader legal and political fight over age verification and online privacy continues.
