WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are turning up the pressure on companies behind so-called “nudify” artificial intelligence platforms, and the message coming out of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission this week was hard to miss.

FTC Chair Andrew N. Ferguson confirmed Wednesday that the agency sent warning letters to 12 companies tied to the operation of AI-driven nudification services. The companies were not publicly identified, but the move was framed as part of a broader effort to enforce compliance with the Take It Down Act.

“Today we’re demonstrating just how serious we are about protecting the public, especially children, from abusive online conduct,” Ferguson said in a press statement. “Platforms no longer have any excuses—they must comply with their obligations under the Take It Down Act or face the consequences.”

The federal enforcement push formally began May 19, marking the start of implementation for the Take It Down Act, which was signed into law nearly a year ago. The law establishes federal criminal penalties for publishing non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes created without a person’s consent.

Under the law, platforms are required to follow a strict notice-and-removal process. Once notified, companies generally have 48 hours to remove the reported content. The warning letters sent to the companies were signed by Christopher G. Mufarrige, who leads the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“The FTC’s May 20 warning letters show that the agency is not waiting for a long ramp-up period,” cautioned Corey Silverstein in a legal alert. “The compliance deadline has passed, and the FTC has begun identifying businesses that appear to lack the required removal process.”

Silverstein added, “Businesses should not wait until they receive a warning letter. The FTC has expressly stated that violations may be treated as violations of an FTC rule and may result in civil penalties.”

At roughly the same time, Australia’s online safety regulator also moved against a nudification platform. Julie Inman Grant, the country’s eSafety Commissioner, announced enforcement action against an unnamed service for allegedly failing to comply with industry codes governing online safety. The office issued what is known as a Direction to Comply order, giving the company 14 days to address the concerns or potentially face penalties worth millions.

“The popularity of this ‘nudify’ platform and the ease of which children can access it is deeply concerning,” Grant said. “These are services that enable the creation of sexually explicit content involving real people and are extremely caustic to adults (mostly women) but also pose an unacceptable risk to children.”

Reflecting on the Australian action, Silverstein said the regulatory direction is becoming increasingly clear across multiple jurisdictions.

“The action reinforces a broader regulatory trend: AI services that generate or enable sexualized deepfake content are being treated as high-risk services requiring proactive safety controls, age-appropriate access restrictions, and documented compliance processes.”

WASHINGTON — The fight over online adult content never really disappears in Washington. It just changes shape, changes names, and circles back around again. This week, it arrived in the form of a letter from Sen. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican urging the U.S. Department of Justice to revive federal obscenity prosecutions and take aim at platforms including OnlyFans.

The letter, addressed to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, was first reported Tuesday by the New York Post.

“Ending obscenity prosecution was a mistake. With explicit content only a click away, there has never been a more important time to enforce our laws,” Banks wrote. Throughout the letter, he calls on Blanche and the administration of Donald J. Trump to restore the Bush-era Obscenity Prosecution Task Force and increase enforcement efforts targeting what he describes as “obscenity.”

“The porn industry has been complicit in child abuse and violence toward women while raking in billions,” Banks posted on X. “Obscenity laws are still good law. It’s time to restart obscenity prosecutions and protect children online.”

Banks points specifically to OnlyFans as an example of how, in his view, “online obscenity has proliferated.” He also repeats disputed claims that pornography harms “the mental and relational well-being” of consumers and exploits performers involved in its creation.

He further argues that “OnlyFans has been exposed for allowing minors to sell explicit videos and for featuring child sex abuse content. The site hosts other kinds of extreme and dangerous sexual content, including videos involving bestiality, incest, and acts that demean women. … It is neither healthy nor safe for sexual content to be so pervasive.”

A spokesperson for OnlyFans declined to comment on the letter. Still, earlier efforts urging the Department of Justice to investigate the platform and its parent company, Fenix International Limited, have not resulted in federal action. For critics of the effort, that history suggests the latest push may have more political symbolism than practical consequence.

The original federal obscenity task force was established in 2005 during the administration of George W. Bush. Its purpose was to pursue cases involving what prosecutors at the time classified as hardcore obscene material. But despite the attention surrounding it, the initiative struggled to produce meaningful results.

Legal scholar Geoffrey R. Stone, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, noted in a 2022 article for the First Amendment Law Review that federal obscenity prosecutions between 2001 and 2005 totaled fewer than 10.

That number remained largely unchanged until the task force was shut down in 2011. One of the best-known failures involved adult filmmaker John Stagliano, founder of Evil Angel. Stagliano was indicted in 2008 on obscenity charges but ultimately succeeded in having the case dismissed.

At the time, Mark Kernes reported that the judge overseeing the case described the prosecution’s evidence as “woefully inadequate.”

Banks’ latest letter does not reference the federal government’s past struggles in securing obscenity convictions. James Felton, who serves as legal counsel for the Adult Performance Artists Guild, said in an email that he sees the renewed push as distracting from larger policy concerns facing Congress.

“His actions intend to make a direct hit on free speech and the rights of performers to earn a living,” Felton said.

“OnlyFans and similar sites have provided a much-needed business opportunity for performers to earn a living at a time when the economy poses challenges for performers and non-performers,” he added. “Congress should devote its time to solving much more important issues than pornography.”

This is not the first time Banks has pursued the issue. He sent a similar letter to the Department of Justice in 2019, though no enforcement action followed.

Other lawmakers have also pushed federal authorities to investigate adult platforms over the years with little visible effect. Among them is Ann Wagner, a Republican congresswoman from eastern Missouri who has repeatedly urged the Justice Department to investigate OnlyFans and similar companies.

Wagner sent two letters in 2021 and later told Reuters in 2024 that OnlyFans was facilitating sex trafficking, though she provided limited evidence publicly to support the claim. Wagner also played a leading role in advancing the FOSTA-SESTA package through the House of Representatives.

The Bush-era obscenity task force was formally dissolved by Eric Holder during the administration of Barack Obama. Its responsibilities were folded into the Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, commonly known as CEOS, which continues to oversee enforcement of federal record-keeping and obscenity-related laws.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s Republican governor has signed legislation requiring adult-oriented businesses to post warning labels that link pornography and adult products to crimes and social harms, despite ongoing debate over the accuracy of those claims.

Gov. Bill Lee signed Senate Bill 2481 into law Tuesday after it moved through the Tennessee legislature with little resistance during the most recent session. The measure was largely championed by Janice Bowling, a Republican lawmaker from Tullahoma.

Under the new law, adult-oriented businesses across the state will have to place warning notices in visible locations near entrances. It’s the kind of requirement that immediately changes the atmosphere of a place before anyone even walks through the door — stark black lettering, official language, no subtlety about it.

The signs must be at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches and printed in 48-point bold block lettering centered on a white background with black text. Businesses that fail to display the notices risk complications obtaining licenses through county adult-oriented business boards, where those boards exist.

Not every county in Tennessee operates one of those regulatory boards. State law defines adult-oriented businesses broadly, including “adult bookstores, adult mini-motion and motion picture theaters, adult cabarets, escort agencies, sexual-encounter centers, massage parlors, rap parlors, saunas, and similar businesses.”

The warning signs themselves are required to include statements such as:

“Attention: By engaging in this type of entertainment, you may be contributing to an increase in domestic assault, rape or sexual assault, and human trafficking.”

Republican state Rep. Monty Fritts carried the bill in the House. With the measure now signed into law, Tennessee further expands what has already become one of the country’s more aggressive regulatory approaches toward adult-oriented businesses and online pornography.

The labeling mandate arrives in addition to Tennessee’s age-verification law, which includes felony-level criminal penalties for violations. The warning-label approach mirrors, in some ways, longstanding requirements tied to tobacco and alcohol sales, while also resembling digital disclosure laws adopted in states such as Texas and Alabama. Sometimes legislation doesn’t just regulate an industry — it sends a message about the culture around it, too.

GENEVA — A group of United Nations experts is calling for stronger action against online pornography platforms, raising concerns about what they described as the large-scale exploitation of women and girls through sites operated by Aylo Holdings, the parent company of Pornhub.

The experts said companies involved in hosting, processing payments for, or directing traffic to such material cannot avoid responsibility when human rights violations occur on their platforms or through their services. “A red line must be drawn,” the experts said. “Systems that facilitate and profit from the sexual exploitation of women and girls cannot merely be regulated at the margins, they must be fundamentally confronted.”

They urged the governments of the United States and Canada to pursue full prosecution of Aylo and require third-party age and consent verification measures for all user-generated pornography websites. According to the experts, the United States did not provide a response. Canada, meanwhile, said it recognizes the need to “modernize the private sector privacy law” and introduce legislation aimed at holding social media providers accountable for harmful content.

The experts also said they believe similar concerns extend beyond Pornhub. “We are concerned that the abuse reflects a broader pattern on platforms such as Xvideos and X.com, which allow user-generated pornography without reliable age or consent verification,” they said. “Exploitation is further enabled through platform monetisation and the continued involvement of payment networks and search engines.”

Another point raised by the experts involved the burden placed on victims attempting to remove non-consensual content from online platforms. They said material often remained accessible despite repeated complaints and removal requests. “This creates a system in which victims are forced to chase their own abuse. They are constantly retraumatised and, even many years after the initial abuse while abusive material continues circulating,” they said.

The experts called for governments to impose binding requirements on Pornhub and other digital platforms that distribute pornography. “There is an urgent need for States to impose binding measures on Pornhub and other digital platforms distributing pornography,” the experts said. They pointed to measures such as mandatory third-party age and consent verification for all individuals depicted in content, along with stricter moderation and removal procedures for abusive or violent material involving children and adults who did not consent.

At the same time, the experts acknowledged changes Aylo has made in recent years, while arguing those steps followed pressure from lawsuits, victims and regulatory scrutiny. They referenced more than 25 lawsuits and action taken by the Federal Trade Commission. “Collectively, these actions led Pornhub to take down the majority of its content library since 2020, amounting to over 50 million unverified images and videos,” the experts said. “Aylo’s response makes clear that the company cannot credibly dispute its longstanding conduct in globally distributing and monetising the traumatic exploitation of victims on Pornhub.”

The experts also criticized the deferred prosecution agreement reached in December 2023 between Aylo and U.S. prosecutors, arguing it stopped short of full criminal accountability. Under the agreement, Aylo agreed to pay financial penalties and compensation to selected victims and accept outside monitoring for three years. If the company complies with the terms, the charges are expected to be dismissed in 2026 without a conviction being entered.

“The contrast is stark: individuals are imprisoned for trafficking, whilst the corporate entity that enabled and knowingly profited from the criminal enterprise on a large scale avoids conviction,” the experts said.

According to the statement, the experts have communicated directly with Aylo Holdings and with officials in the United States and Canada. They also said they have been in contact with payment companies previously connected to Pornhub transactions, including Mastercard and Visa, as well as technology companies involved in directing online traffic, including Google, Meta and Microsoft.

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LOS ANGELES — Kickstarter has rolled out new “Mature Content” policies that prohibit projects involving adult entertainment and a wide range of sextech products, marking a notable shift for a platform that once helped launch several high-profile sexual wellness brands.

Under the updated rules, Kickstarter states that it “is not a venue for adult-only or sexually explicit content and such content is prohibited.”

The policy specifically bars “any project specifically stating it or the rewards being offered are being created for sexual pleasure,” along with “any project that distributes or enables distribution of pornographic content.” The restrictions also apply to sexual wellness devices that are “explicitly designed for sexual stimulation through insertion or penetration, or are intended to have body parts inserted into them.”

The new guidelines further prohibit sexual wellness products that are “marketed or presented primarily for sexual gratification in a manner that creates heightened safety or moderation concerns,” though the company has not publicly explained what standards it will use to determine those concerns.

Kickstarter’s revised policy still leaves room for some intimate products. Items that are not intended for insertion or penetration may remain eligible, provided they are “not marketed primarily for sexual gratification.” The company lists products such as “lubricants, nipple jewelry, and other intimate items such as bras and underwear” as examples that could still qualify.

A Change in Direction

The updated rules stand in contrast to Kickstarter’s earlier approach, which allowed a number of adult-oriented and sexual wellness campaigns to gain visibility — and significant funding — through the platform.

In the company’s earlier years, pleasure brand Dame launched a crowdfunding campaign for Fin, a finger-worn vibrator. The campaign faced initial resistance before eventually being approved, later reaching full funding within two days.

Spanish sexual wellness company MyHixel also found success on Kickstarter, using the platform for campaigns tied to its ejaculation-control strokers in 2018, 2022 and 2024.

Last year, Ohdoki introduced two new stroker sleeves through Kickstarter and ultimately secured more than $1.5 million in pledges.

In 2025, the insertable audio-enabled pleasure device Groove Thing raised $100,000 during the first 12 hours of its campaign before eventually surpassing half a million dollars in total backing.

The change is especially striking given Kickstarter’s own recent efforts to spotlight adult-adjacent creators. Last year, the company launched “Kickstarter After Dark,” a newsletter promoting projects tied to “adult lifestyle products and innovations,” along with “personal wellness technology” and “mature-oriented design projects.”

The newsletter carried the slogan, “Because NSFW deserves a home on Kickstarter.”

“Adult creators deserve the same spotlight and promotion as any other project on Kickstarter,” the company said at the time.

DUBLIN — Ireland is preparing to step deeper into the debate over online sexual content, with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan planning legislation that would criminalize the possession and distribution of what he described as “extreme” pornography.

According to the Irish Independent, O’Callaghan, who leads Ireland’s Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, said his department is drafting proposals that would outlaw the production, distribution and possession of “extreme or violent pornography.” He said he hopes to bring the proposed legislation before the government within the next two months.

O’Callaghan told the newspaper that members of Ireland’s national police service have warned of what they believe is a “direct link” between online pornography and “serious sexual violence on women,” including incidents involving “nonfatal strangulation, degrading sexual acts, and coercion.”

“I’m not a person who’s interested in censorship, but I am going to bring forward proposals to criminalize extreme violent pornography,” O’Callaghan told the Irish Independent.

“I think it is necessary to introduce it and start it in order to protect young people, teenage children, young men, and women as well,” O’Callaghan said. “People are getting a distorted view of what human sexuality is about.”

Following the UK

The proposal in Ireland arrives as similar legislation has recently taken shape in the United Kingdom. Last month, the U.K.’s Crime and Policing Act introduced criminal penalties for depictions of “non-fatal strangulation” and sexual content involving adults portraying underage characters.

Momentum behind restrictions on “extreme” pornography in the U.K. increased earlier this year after the release of a government-backed pornography review that recommended banning adult material considered “degrading, violent and misogynistic.” Several of the arguments now being used in Ireland echo the language and themes contained in that review.

Speaking on the Irish podcast “Newstalk Breakfast,” Dr. Madeleine Ní Dhálaigh, vice chair of the Irish Medical Organization’s General Practitioners Committee, said, “So, modern pornography, we know that 90% of the scenes show an act of physical aggression and 95% of the time it’s directed against the woman who’s providing the content.”

Dhálaigh did not provide a source for those figures during the interview.

“The violence in pornography is real,” Dhálaigh argued. “It’s acted out by the content providers, but it is very real. That woman is experiencing pain and is being subjected to all forms of degradation and violence … These violent acts in pornography are informing domestic violence, informing teenage dating violence and informing the sexual scripts of our young people.”

Podcast host Anton Savage observed that, if the statistics cited by Dhálaigh are accurate, it could mean nearly all pornography would fall under a potential ban.

Dhálaigh responded, “Well, I think that this is a conversation we need to have.”

SARASOTA, Fla. — WebGroup Czech Republic (WGCZ), the parent company of XVideos, XNXX, BangBros and GirlsGoneWild, has reached a settlement with the state of Florida over allegations that the sites failed to verify the ages of Florida users before granting access to adult content.

The agreement requires WGCZ to implement age-verification measures across its platforms and pay $1.2 million to Florida’s Department of Legal Affairs.

The lawsuit, filed last year by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, named WGCZ, which operates XVideos.com, along with several affiliated companies. Those included NKL Associates, operator of XNXX.com; Sonesta Technologies, which operates BangBros.com; GGW Group, operator of GirlsGoneWild.com; and Traffic F, which operates TrafficFactory.com.

In the complaint, the attorney general’s office said it sought “to compel the pornographers to comply with their obligations under Florida’s age-verification law.” The filing also argued that every “knowing and intentional” violation of the state’s age-verification requirements amounted to an “unfair and deceptive trade practice” under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Under the terms of the settlement, WGCZ’s websites may use users’ IP addresses to determine whether a visitor is located in Florida. That provision will remain in place for five years, a timeframe that appears tied to ongoing concerns about users bypassing geolocation systems through VPN services — a practice lawmakers and regulators in multiple jurisdictions have increasingly tried to address through both legislation and technology.

LONDON — Ofcom said Wednesday that it has opened investigations into two additional adult websites as regulators continue examining whether platforms are complying with the age-verification rules established under the U.K.’s sweeping Online Safety Act.

The regulator said it is investigating www.pimpbunny.com and www.kemono.cr to determine whether the operators behind the sites implemented what the law describes as “highly effective” age checks.

“Robust age checks are a cornerstone of the Online Safety Act,” an Ofcom statement said. “Sites that host pornographic material must use ‘highly effective’ age checks to determine whether a particular user is over 18, in order to prevent children from readily accessing that content.”

Under the Online Safety Act, “highly effective age assurance” measures include systems such as AI-assisted age estimation, identity verification tools and hybrid verification methods designed to improve accuracy in identifying and deterring underage users. The investigations arrive as age-verification technology continues drawing attention from researchers and critics alike, particularly after multiple reports suggested that some age-estimation systems can still be bypassed with simple disguises and other workarounds.

“We have prioritised action against these providers based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operate,” Ofcom added. “We have taken particular account of their user numbers, including where we have seen significant increases in their user traffic since age-check laws came into force last summer.”

Ofcom also provided updates on ongoing enforcement investigations involving www.fapello.com and adult tube platform www.xgroovy.com. The regulator said it had issued a decision regarding fapello.com, finding that the site breached age-verification and online safety obligations under the Online Safety Act. Meanwhile, the agency said it is widening its investigation into xgroovy after gathering evidence indicating the site may not be complying with formal statutory information requests tied to online safety and age-assurance requirements.

WASHINGTON — With the May 19 compliance deadline closing in, the Federal Trade Commission has begun putting major online platforms on notice over enforcement of the Take It Down Act.

The agency said warning letters were sent to a wide range of tech and social media companies, including Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Automattic, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, SmugMug, Snapchat, TikTok and X.

The law, approved by Congress and signed nearly a year ago, establishes a federal criminal ban on the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes shared without consent.

At the center of the measure is a strict notice-and-removal requirement. Platforms covered under U.S. law must remove flagged content within 48 hours after receiving notice. That enforcement window officially begins May 19. For a lot of companies, especially those handling huge volumes of user uploads every minute, the clock suddenly feels very real.

“We stand ready to monitor compliance, investigate violations, and enforce the Take It Down Act,” said Andrew Ferguson. “Protecting the vulnerable—especially children—from this harmful abuse is a top priority for this agency and this administration.”

“Under the law, ‘covered platforms’ include various websites, apps and online services, such as social media, messaging, image or video sharing and gaming platforms,” the FTC said in its statement. The agency added that unlawful sharing of covered material could lead to federal criminal prosecution, while violations of the notice-and-removal requirements would also be treated as FTC rule violations carrying civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation.

Attorney Corey Silverstein said adult industry companies should already be preparing for compliance and consulting legal counsel where necessary. In a recent blog post, Silverstein wrote, “For platforms that host user-generated content, creator content, private messaging, image or video uploads, live chat, AI-generated media, or adult content, this is not just a policy issue.

“It is an operational issue,” he continued. “A compliant policy is not enough if the platform cannot receive, review, track, remove, and prevent reposting of covered content within the required timeframe.”

The Free Speech Coalition raised similar concerns in late April.

Liability under the Take It Down Act applies to “any person who knowingly publishes [non-consensual] content using an interactive computer service,” the FSC said in a statement. “This targets the individual uploader/publisher, not the platform. … Platforms must post a clear, conspicuous, plain-language notice of their removal process and how to submit a request. … Failure to comply with the notice-and-removal obligations is treated as an unfair or deceptive act or practice under the FTC Act, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.”

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers moved one step closer Tuesday to putting age-verification requirements for adult websites directly into state law, with the state Senate voting unanimously in favor of the proposal.

The measure now heads back to the House of Representatives for a final set of procedural actions, including a fiscal review, before it can be sent to Gov. Mike Kehoe for signature. Republicans currently hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers as well as the governor’s office, giving the proposal a clear path forward.

Three separate bills dealing with age verification — HB 1839 from Rep. Sherri Gallick, HB 2921 from Rep. Melissa Schmidt and HB 3015 from Rep. Jeff Farnan — were merged earlier this year into a substitute measure by the House Children and Families Committee.

That combined bill later cleared the House despite objections raised by progressive lawmakers and Democrats focused on civil liberties concerns. In the Senate, however, resistance was limited, and the legislation advanced without significant debate.

Under the proposal, websites in which at least 33 percent of content is considered harmful to minors or classified as pornographic would be required to verify the ages of users before access is granted. The language would apply not only to adult entertainment platforms but also to mainstream social media sites such as Reddit and X if they meet the threshold outlined in the bill.

Missouri officials have already pursued age-verification policies through regulatory action. Former Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued a non-legislative intervention in 2025, an effort later supported by his successor, Catherine Hanaway. Lawmakers backing the legislation say placing the requirement directly into state statute would make it more difficult for future administrations to reverse course.