Adin Ross has drawn a lot of attention to himself recently in various ways, including supporting misogynist and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate, as well as flirting with a move from Twitch to the controversial streaming startup Kick, which has ties to the online casino Stake.
Ross, who previously did numerous sponsored streams for Stake before the gambling site was banned on Twitch, has executed a few broadcasts on Kick, and they haven’t failed to turn heads as he does everything that would get him banned on Twitch.
During a recent stream, he even went as far as to pull up the homepage of the popular porn website PornHub, which would easily have resulted in a swift suspension on Twitch. But, as has been the case every other time he’s done questionable activities on Kick, he wasn’t condemned by the new platform.
Before starting his streams on Kick, Ross claimed that there were no rules on the platform, which is either a lie by the streamer or just him being egregiously oblivious. In a way, though, he seems to be accurate in that the platform doesn’t seem to have much in the way of content moderation.
Kick does have a terms of service document on the website, and among a list of prohibited activities is “uploading or making available … nudity or other sexually suggestive content.” The parameters of discipline for breaking that rule are unclear, though, and Ross doesn’t seem to have been punished.
Did Adin Ross break the law?
It’s clear that Adin Ross broke Kick’s terms of service, but was his sharing of pornography also against the law? It could be difficult to prove in court, but he certainly didn’t play it safe.
The place where Ross could potentially be at fault for the distribution of pornography and potential distribution of pornography to minors. The specific federal law that could be in question is the U.S. Code Title 18 Section 1470, which prohibits “knowingly” sharing pornographic material with minors.
Related: XQc calls out Adin Ross over ‘trash’ behavior in controversial Kick streaming debut
Pornography websites have terms of service that prohibit the use of the website by minors in an attempt at protecting themselves. As PornHub’s ToS states, “You affirm that you are at least 18 years of age or the age of majority in the jurisdiction you are accessing the Website from. … If you are under 18 or the applicable age of majority, please do not use the Website.”
Kick’s ToS states that people under the age of 18 can use the platform with permission from a guardian.
“If you are under 18, you represent and warrant that you have your parent or guardian’s permission to use the Service and that your parent or guardian is agreeing to these Terms,” Kick’s ToS said.
This slight discrepancy means that people under the age of 18 were allowed to, and likely were, watching Ross’ stream while he made a show of opening up PornHub. For Ross to be tried for showing porn on stream, the prosecution would likely need to prove that some of his viewers were minors.
They would also need to find evidence that Ross knew people in his audience were underage. This could come from him admitting to knowing the age of an audience member that was a minor before sharing the pornographic material on stream.
