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PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

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Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#81

Post by rtpg »

Someone1234 wrote: post #71
rtpg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One example: in Japan cell phone operators provide a mechanism by which you can OAuth into their system, and then they will tell you whether the user is over 18 or not. This lets Line age-restrict "become friends with random people online" functionality.

That doesn't scale well. How does it expand to PCs, SmartTVs, tablets, games consoles, etc?

User account associated to a phone number is a common tactic. Phone numbers serving as a proxy for identity is more and more of a thing.

People might talk about burner phones, but many localities never really had burner phones in the first place (Japan doesn't give a phone number on travel SIMs, there's "no way" to have a phone number without getting your ID checked somewhere), and other localities are tightening the grip on this.

It's not a universally nice and open solution. But it's probably one most markets will bear

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#82

Post by tokai »

rtpg wrote: post #50
tokai wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if they did something I don't get that. Why would it be good? Why should it ever be a webpage's responsibility?

There are some people who believe that access to certain services should be age-gated. Thus follows that a web page offering the service should handle this age gating, in the same way that alcohol sellers are responsible for checking that their customers are of drinking age. In the Real World(TM) this is a fairly uncontroversial idea. The Internet is very wild west on these things and that has lead to interesting out…

Is the Real World only the USA? Cause where I'm from its not illegal for a sub 18 year old to buy a porn mag in a kiosk.

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#83

Post by madeofpalk »

aflag wrote: post #46
xyzzy4747 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just my own thoughts: there could theoretically be an identity system that simply replies "Yes/No" if someone is underage or not. But nothing like this exists to my knowledge.

That service would need to be run by a third party, which would know your id and the fact that you are trying to access pornhub, wouldn't it?

Eventually, but part of this could be delegated to someone who probably already knows your identity.

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#84

Post by hgsgm »

tokai wrote: post #32
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #20

This all seems a little disingenuous. First, from their summary, it doesn’t sound like the law actually requires checking a photo ID. They’re treating it like some maximalist regulation that it isn’t—it requires them to do more than nothing though. And also > PornHub said that a better solution is to identify users by their device. Pornhub effectively does absolutely nothing to verify users’ ages right now. Maybe it…

>Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if they did something I don't get that. Why would it be good? Why should it ever be a webpage's responsibility?

Why should an alcohol vendor be responsible for not selling booze to children?

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#85

Post by ben_w »

FrankyZunim wrote: post #47
jackmott42 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine this is something that has been studied extensively, what good/bad o outcomes are known from societies that do/don't allow porn?

[flagged]

From the stats I've seen, the only recent change to transgender rates is female-to-male, which is the exact opposite of autogynephilia, increasing.

Also, the absolute numbers are tiny, so it's not an "epidemic" by any measure.

If you'd just focused on addiction and escalation of weirdness, you might have a point. Possibly. Not my field, but it's at least not as implausible as your chosen bug-bear.

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#86

Post by wang_li »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #7
YPPH wrote: post #2

Presumably they are using some form of IP address geolocation. If that's as inaccurate in the USA as it is in Australia, they're going to have problems - a lot of the time it puts me in the wrong State.

That's probably fine. Perhaps the point is to make it more clear to lawmakers that you can't build a Great Salt Lake Firewall.

Since they just passed a law requiring real age verification, if you’re trying to make some point about firewalls you’re making the wrong point.

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#87

Post by slothtrop »

xyzzy4747 wrote: post #37
aflag wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious. What's in between nothing and checking id?

Just my own thoughts: there could theoretically be an identity system that simply replies "Yes/No" if someone is underage or not. But nothing like this exists to my knowledge.

Seems unsafe to telegraph to the web that a device is being handled by an underage user. And redundant, since that would probably require some intervention from the user/client to set up, who could already block adult websites on devices anyway. If they're capturing the edge case of parents who do nothing, but expect their kids to be protected when they hand them a tablet, I don't think there's much to do. Seems way more effective, with no downsides, to just communicate to parents on the govt's part.

Adult streaming sites have the "are you 18 years of age?" pop-up. As far as those managing the sites are concerned that should be enough.

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#88

Post by uncletaco »

mkl95 wrote: post #78

Somewhere in Utah, an FBI agent giggles

A whole family of them, probably. The FBI loves recruiting Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists because of those religious sects' tendency to do mission work and learn less widely used languages. I guess it didn't hurt that both shun the use of intoxicants.

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#89

Post by ghastmaster »

ben_w wrote: post #59
wesleywt wrote: post #39

[flagged]

Tangential question: given the Cold War memes of the "red scare" and "better dead than red", how/why did the Republican Party decide to keep that colour scheme? I mean, if even the British Royal Family had to change its name from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor…

> how/why did the Republican Party decide to keep that colour scheme?

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the colors are fairly recent and largely a result of media depictions of electoral maps. It is not an official choice by the party.

https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/visualarts/the-origins...

Re: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

#90

Post by ajross »

wunderland wrote: post #24

The US is also planning a law that would make it illegal to use VPNs to skirt laws like this: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/04/could-tiktok-ban...

No, it doesn't. RESTRICT empowers the federal government to enforce website bans, and provides for enforcement against efforts to evade those bans. This is a[1] Utah state law, and a voluntary ban set up by Pornhub itself to comply. Just not relevant.

Mind you, RESTRICT is a bad bill, and those provisions are vague, and the EFF is right to be screaming about it. But it doesn't do what you think it does.

[1] Hilariously and depressingly unconstitutional. Good grief.

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