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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

#741

Post by rchaud »

mind-blight wrote: post #388
rchaud wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is something that your parents or community elders could have told you. Why does the state need to intervene? Phub is also a legitimate business that has commercial advertising interests in the US, so they're incentivized to play nice. There are about a million other websites that aren't based in North America, contain only pirated material, and don't care about what laws are applicable where.

PornHub refused to take down child porn and rape videos (not actors, actual assaults) on their platform for years. They only took them down when the victims in the videos took them to court and the NYT published an exposé. They're in the middle of being sued right now, and the evidence that's coming to light in that case is pretty damning. Given how poorly they've behaved so far, I don't agree that they're incentiviz…

You're just making my point. This is the new and improved PH that's trying to go legit and abides by local laws and regulations.

All the other sites? Not so much.

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

#742

Post by voltaireodactyl »

phatboyslim wrote: post #736

Pornography, social media, 24/7 news... will all be looked back on in history as having profound negative mental health effects, akin to how we today view smoking in the 1950s. There is a mountain of growing evidence that this is verifiably true. The exact means that Utah is using to provide ID check may be for debate, but the concept there should be an age restriction, liable to the ISP or the content provider, shou…

What alternative means do you see as having the potential to be effective? Is there a version that does not require unmasking everyone just to identify the children?

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

#743

Post by [deleted] »

Waterluvian wrote: post #730
wakannai wrote: post #328

Multiple issues with this. It starts off with arbitrary definitions of what pornography is ( https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/SB0287.html ): "nipple of the female breast" You can suck on it when you are a baby, but god forbid you ever take a look at it again before you are married. What's wrong with these people? Even public nudity laws differ from city to city (e.g. in California), so clearly, people aren't al…

One of my favourite concepts in "late night" style comedy is when they test the censors by gradually incrementing something boring into something "unacceptable," whether it be language, the context of a sketch, or something graphic. And then once they've got the line they play with that line (eg. words/names that sound like "fuck", or Cecily Strong having sex with Bill Hader under a small throw). One of the best ways…

[deleted]

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

#744

Post by [deleted] »

tristor wrote: post #512
wakannai wrote: post #328

Multiple issues with this. It starts off with arbitrary definitions of what pornography is ( https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/SB0287.html ): "nipple of the female breast" You can suck on it when you are a baby, but god forbid you ever take a look at it again before you are married. What's wrong with these people? Even public nudity laws differ from city to city (e.g. in California), so clearly, people aren't al…

> What's wrong with these people? It's Utah. Utah, for all the ways that actually matter, is effectively a theocracy operated by an ultra-conservative religious minority. Utah is about as similar to the rest of the United States as the rest of the United States is similar to the Middle East.

[deleted]

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

#745

Post by cogitoergofutuo »

PathOfEclipse wrote: post #738
tristor wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's wrong with these people? It's Utah. Utah, for all the ways that actually matter, is effectively a theocracy operated by an ultra-conservative religious minority. Utah is about as similar to the rest of the United States as the rest of the United States is similar to the Middle East.

> is effectively a theocracy operated by an ultra-conservative religious minority. You should look up what the word theocracy means. Here. I'll do it for you: "a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god." Utah's government is a constitutional Republic. People vote in leaders who make laws and administer the government on their behalf. > Utah is about as similar to the rest of the United…

Have you spent much time in Utah? Off the top of my head I can’t think of an organization that could be considered an even distant second to the LDS church in terms of influence over policies brought to and enacted by the elected officials in that state.

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

#746

Post by newswasboring »

PathOfEclipse wrote: post #738
tristor wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's wrong with these people? It's Utah. Utah, for all the ways that actually matter, is effectively a theocracy operated by an ultra-conservative religious minority. Utah is about as similar to the rest of the United States as the rest of the United States is similar to the Middle East.

> is effectively a theocracy operated by an ultra-conservative religious minority. You should look up what the word theocracy means. Here. I'll do it for you: "a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god." Utah's government is a constitutional Republic. People vote in leaders who make laws and administer the government on their behalf. > Utah is about as similar to the rest of the United…

I'm always vary of these arguments. Doesn't mean you are wrong, but remember there is a country call Democratic People's Republic of Korea and it has elections every 4-5 years. Last one was in 2019.

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

#747

Post by Seattle3503 »

brightball wrote: post #537
wakannai wrote: post #328

Multiple issues with this. It starts off with arbitrary definitions of what pornography is ( https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/SB0287.html ): "nipple of the female breast" You can suck on it when you are a baby, but god forbid you ever take a look at it again before you are married. What's wrong with these people? Even public nudity laws differ from city to city (e.g. in California), so clearly, people aren't al…

There’s such a strange dichotomy in these conversations. 1. Porn shouldn’t be available to kids and it’s on the vendors legally to ensure that. 2. Porn should be unrestricted, it’s up to parents to do something about it. What I can’t understand is if the people in camp 2 are so unashamed of the porn advocacy then why is age verification such a big deal? If it’s not a big deal then verifying your age shouldn’t phase y…

> If it’s not a big deal then verifying your age shouldn’t phase you anymore than verifying your age to buy alcohol. If it is then you know exactly why kids should be kept away from it.

This is very different. When I buy alcohol, the guy at the checkout looks at my ID picture, checks the DOB, then we move on with the transaction. Digitizing the process changes so much.

Will porn websites be required to provide an audit trail to regulators to verify compliance? Will providers need to send your ID to a third party provider to verify authenticity? What security and privacy guarantees are in place? What is to stop another Ashley Madison style leak from outing gay Mormons in Utah?

"We do it in analog, so it will be fine at scale in digital" is not an argument I would expect on HN.

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

#748

Post by michalu »

Good riddance for Utah. Evil company that ruined lives of many people both users and the "actors" Also super pathetic to be a user of this - watching pixels to fool your brain to release dopamine to get even more pleasure than what the pleaure driven economy of the first world offers 24/7 already.

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

#749

Post by pkulak »

PathOfEclipse wrote: post #738
tristor wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's wrong with these people? It's Utah. Utah, for all the ways that actually matter, is effectively a theocracy operated by an ultra-conservative religious minority. Utah is about as similar to the rest of the United States as the rest of the United States is similar to the Middle East.

> is effectively a theocracy operated by an ultra-conservative religious minority. You should look up what the word theocracy means. Here. I'll do it for you: "a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god." Utah's government is a constitutional Republic. People vote in leaders who make laws and administer the government on their behalf. > Utah is about as similar to the rest of the United…

Theocracies can be elected. I fail to see how your definition of a theocracy automatically disqualifies Utah from being an "effective theocracy".

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

#750

Post by Curvature5868 »

xdennis wrote: post #445
afavour wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ll get some angry responses to this but I think it’s very worthwhile to say. Yes , ID verification in order to watch pornography is deeply Orwellian and terrifying (which is the aspect places like HN tend to focus on) but the bulk of the public support for these measures isn’t because people want government surveillance, it’s because they want to look out for children. Are they misguided? Perhaps. But you can’t w…

> it’s because they want to look out for children The issue is that it's _their_ job to look out for their children. We don't force all beds to have "walls", and give adults the keys to lower them if they show proof of age. Parents are supposed to buy _cribs_ for their children.

Should pornography be allowed to be displayed on billboards or in storefront windows? Is it the job of parents to cover their children's eyes as they stroll through town? As a society we have (mostly) set limits on where pornography can be accessed. Adult shops have a proprietor who can shoo kids out. Is the www different from public streets?
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