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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

#171

Post by coldpie »

arp242 wrote: post #158
rtpg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I remember trying to buy some video games when I was a kid, and they wouldn't sell it to me because it was rated as 15+ and I wasn't 15. People would also check ages at movie theatres; I had some trouble getting in to Jurassic Park with my friend but we did manage, and also regretted it as I was scared witless for months, demonstrating that these age limits are perhaps not entirely nonsense. A lot of people seem to h…

The trouble for most people isn't age verification per se, it's the knock-on effects from that. Which do you prefer:

1) No age verification, or

2) Every access to online adult content is forever publicly associated with your personal information?

I agree neither is ideal, but I think 1 is better than 2.

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

#172

Post by nimbius »

vlunkr wrote: post #166

I hope these laws don’t devolve into a special internet for Utah (and maybe more red states in the future). Remember this is about social media too. This is eventually going to hit even Hacker News if the law is actually effective. Is HN going to jump through the hoops of complying with the law or just block Utah?

from a programmatic standpoint i think it is both easier and more ethical to simply block utah. Im working on a python library now that should easily remove the threat of utah from the internet in most cases, and can be rapidly deployed should anyone suspect utah on their local networks or extranets.

EDIT: i am told this is due to a specific law in utah and has nothing to do with the numerous well respected and certainly not crackpot theorists I subscribe to.

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

#173

Post by denton-scratch »

thebooktocome wrote: post #10
johnnymorgan wrote: post #6

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

What’s weird is, from my reading of the law in question, a minor using either a VPN or a stolen ID card to access PornHub is a violation. . . for PornHub. That seems a little wonky to me.

From my reading, this is just another attempt to bypass 1st Amendment by allowing a civil suit against a porn-merchant by members of the public: if the entity imposing censorship isn't the government, then it doesn't fall foul of the 1st.

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

#174

Post by theclansman »

taylodl wrote: post #160

The funny thing is the minors know how to use a VPN to get around this law whereas the many older users don't! So, in Utah the minors will be able to access porn and many of the adults will not! Good job Utah!

Not quite, have you not been following the news that new generations are worse with technology than the previous ones? Minors barely know how to use a computer nowadays, they only use smart phones.

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

#175

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

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 won that battle.

If only 0.01% of the population has the technical saviness to bypass the Great Firewall, then they've succeed beyond their wildest optimism. No one cares about the few exceptions. If those people speak out to anyone about how they're able to get around it... then guess what happens? And if they just shut up and keep it to themselves, that's a good outcome too.

You're chuckling "but it's not 100%" when they might have been satisfied with 85%. Joke's on you.

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

#176

Post by Mashimo »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #34
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…

What ways are there to verify age online other than photo IDs? Real question, I am not familiar with this area. When I google, I find several third-party "age verification as a service" services. Their marketing isn't always clear about what they actually do, but I think they all look like they get photo ID (not sure if they do anything to try to confirm the person sending the ID is that person). Their pricing is als…

Government SSO / 2FA, similar to MitID / NemID in Denmark.

Could you make a SSO where the website owner just gets a true / false bool back from the SSO? :thinking:

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

#177

Post by torstenvl »

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...

> generated speculation that it could criminalize the use of VPNs

I don't like the RESTRICT Act but you're overstating your case.

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

#178

Post by edgyquant »

rbanffy wrote: post #112
robertlagrant wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hilariously and depressingly unconstitutional. Good grief. How is it unconstitutional? I don't know the ins and outs.

IANAL, but it looks like a law that's designed to suppress specific forms of art and artistical manifestations, which could be argued are free speech.

Pornography is already restricted for minors. All this law does it make that restriction apply to internet sites as well.

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

#179

Post by dagw »

thehm wrote: post #79
rtpg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Where can one buy an internet connection without being at least 18 years old? To use your analogy, it is parents who are paying for the alcohol and then leaving it in a place where it is easy for their children to access. Responsible parents either teach their children about appropriate alcohol use or make it difficult to access, or both.

Where can one buy an internet connection without being at least 18 years old?

Most cities are full of places offering free internet connections to anybody in the vicinity.

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

#180

Post by shhsshs »

denton-scratch wrote: post #157

Pornhub reportedly says that rather than requiring identification, it's better to "identify users by their device" - what does that mean? If you're going to require ID, what does it matter how you acquire that ID?

I am guessing something like the device knows its owner is under 18, and websites can query “is the user under 18” to disable itself.
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