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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

#121

Post by mcny »

throwaway60607 wrote: post #102
Thiez wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're proposing a technical solution to a political problem. It doesn't work, this should be fixed at the source.

How exactly it doesn't work? Not even China has been able to make their Great Firewall resilient to stuff like VPNs.

> How exactly it doesn't work? Not even China has been able to make their Great Firewall resilient to stuff like VPNs.

I don't have any inside information, but my uninformed guess is that this is by design or at least tolerated to some extent. You don't want a watertight VPN because it stifles commerce.

China PR could pull a Singapore and impose the kind of punishment for using VPN that Singapore does for hard drugs. I have a friend from Texas who lives in China PR and regularly uploads to YouTube. Nothing political, he is talking about living and working as a teacher, so he isn't doing anything controversial but in theory what he is doing is unlawful by China PR laws, right?

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

#122

Post by hgsgm »

LinuxBender wrote: post #73
johnnymorgan wrote: post #6

In other news, VPN subscription sales explode in Utah! easy sales opportunity

I was thinking about this. Do sites like Pornhub use DRM in their players? Asking because AFAIK browsers will pass a network ID that does not change when DRM is used. In Firefox it is in "about:networking#networkid" and they don't make it easy to change that. I believe Chrome has something similar. I think it also uses serial numbers? Could be I am mixing up identifiers used in DRM vs. browser specific integrations.

This is part of Pornhub's counterproposal: Verify user ID on client side, pair with deice, and approve device ID for adult services.

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

#123

Post by jjoonathan »

throwaway60607 wrote: post #102
Thiez wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're proposing a technical solution to a political problem. It doesn't work, this should be fixed at the source.

How exactly it doesn't work? Not even China has been able to make their Great Firewall resilient to stuff like VPNs.

A rubber hose firewall doesn't need to be completely resilient to VPNs, in fact I imagine they would like a steady supply of people to make an example of.

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

#124

Post by mrtranscendence »

nojonestownpls wrote: post #56
marcofiset wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody knows that prohibition does not work. People will get their fix any other way.

Some people will have their fix anyway, while others will find that the friction starts to change their habits away from it. Unless you believe access friction has no psychological impact at all. And the friction is going to be especially impactful if you're a young teen and haven't been hooked into it as a habit yet. I speak partially from experience, as someone from a country with a lot of porn blocked. It was supe…

> Some people will have their fix anyway, while others will find that the friction starts to change their habits away from it.

Yeah, I think people forget in these discussions how costs work. Making drug / alcohol / pornography usage illegal increases the costs involved, and these cost increases will reduce demand for at least some consumers.

For example, I can't smoke weed because then I can't get Adderall. That's a kind of local prohibition. I could go to the black market for both weed and Adderall but I'm not going to do that, so prohibition has worked here.

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

#125

Post by robertlagrant »

formerly_proven wrote: post #31
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…

Personally I think these kinds of regulations are pointless and just needlessly destructive. If you actually start to enforce them you get results like in germany, where they created an AI/ML tool scanning public posts for lewd pictures (marked 18+ or not, since that doesn't matter under german law) and try to fine the poster. Compliant sites actually do require state-issued ID to validate your age and grant access.…

I don't understand - what is a reasonable regulation?

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

#126

Post by remram »

m0rissette wrote: post #23
brightball wrote: post #14

It’s probably only a matter of time. The internet became the only place where age verification wasn’t really a thing. I’m honestly more surprised this didn’t happen 20 years ago.

I don’t know about you but I still have to verify my age from time to time when certain sites ask I just have to click a button saying I am over X years old.

That's not "verifying" on the part of the site, that's just "warning".

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

#127

Post by atlasunshrugged »

rbanffy wrote: post #116
throwaway60607 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly it doesn't work? Not even China has been able to make their Great Firewall resilient to stuff like VPNs.

A block doesn't need to be completely effective as to prevent violations - all it needs is to provide enough data to authorities so they can make sure you don't do it too often.

Or let people violate the law so that you can selectively enforce it on the people that you want to. "For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law" - Oscar Benavides

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

#128

Post by BowBun »

throwaway60607 wrote: post #102
Thiez wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're proposing a technical solution to a political problem. It doesn't work, this should be fixed at the source.

How exactly it doesn't work? Not even China has been able to make their Great Firewall resilient to stuff like VPNs.

China is a poor example if you're trying to say that people can circumvent political technology decisions. The firewall works for 90%+ of their population and allows them to present versions of events that don't align with the rest of the world. That can happen in the US as well, and we already know there's organizations that are willing to do it.

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

#129

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

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...

Good luck with that ;) how are all those senators and congressmen going to watch porn with a law like that on the books?

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

#130

Post by themitigating »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #54
themitigating wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First admendment?

I’m not aware of any cases holding that distribution of pornography to minors is protected speech, but I’d be happy to be educated if you have one.

Why?
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