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United States Technology

Pornhub Attacks States for Passing 'Unsafe' Age-Verification Laws (arstechnica.com) 98

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Pornhub visitors in Virginia, Mississippi, and Arkansas will see a "very important message" on the adult website's homepage starting today. From a report: Pornhub's public service announcement prompts visitors to contact representatives and oppose recently passed age-verification laws in these states that Pornhub claims puts children and all users' privacy at risk. If users don't support Pornhub before laws go into effect, the company says, Pornhub could potentially restrict access in these states -- a threat it already followed through on in Utah.

In the PSA, adult entertainer Cherie Deville tells Pornhub users that instead of states requiring ID to access adult content, "the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to verify users' age at a device level and allow or block access to age-restricted materials and websites accordingly." According to CNN, this PSA is part of a larger effort by Pornhub and its private equity owners, Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), to work with big tech companies to create new device-based age verification solutions. So far, ECP partner Solomon Friedman told CNN that ECP has lobbied Apple, Google, and Microsoft to "develop a technological standard that might turn a user's electronic device into the proof of age necessary to access restricted online content."
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Pornhub Attacks States for Passing 'Unsafe' Age-Verification Laws More

Pornhub Attacks States for Passing 'Unsafe' Age-Verification Laws

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  • More FOSTA crap (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HBI ( 10338492 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @01:45PM (#63583764)

    Remember when we had Craigslist personals? [npr.org] This is just the next step. Keep it illegal and underground to save children. Except it won't.

    This is why we can't have nice things. Idiots at every level, from voters to pressure groups to politicians. I'm sure some bozo thinks this somehow saved a life or prevented a girl from making money on her looks.

    • But, in the meantime....get a VPN.

      There's a free one for Amazon FireTV: "Windscribe Free".

      Just look for it in apps.

      • But, in the meantime....get a VPN.

        There's a free one for Amazon FireTV: "Windscribe Free".

        Just look for it in apps.

        It's free. So how much of my personal data will be exfiltrated to a 3rd party country like Russia, China, North Korea, Nigeria, and so on?

        • It's free. So how much of my personal data will be exfiltrated to a 3rd party country like Russia, China, North Korea, Nigeria, and so on?

          I guess you could ask that for almost any VPN service, no?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. All this does is making the situation worse for everybody, very much including those supposedly "protected". The usual modus of the religious fuckups and their useful idiot helpers and supporters. The whole thing is a misery and death cult.

    • Keep it illegal and underground to save children.

      If you want to "save the children" we should start with the underground goings on at churches [nbcnews.com].

    • Re:More FOSTA crap (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @02:29PM (#63583868)

      Red states tackling the real issues. Let's see what they're up to.

      Rolling back child labor, because nObOdY wAnTs To WoRk AnYmOrE https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27... [npr.org]

      Letting 12 year olds get married. https://www.newsweek.com/misso... [newsweek.com]

      Stopping adults from wearing funny clothes. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/n... [pbs.org]

      Let's not worry about. Wages, working conditions, healthcare, mental health care (isn't this blamed for every mass shooting?) infant mortality, poverty, education, inflation, grocery prices, energy prices.

      • Don't forget the Red States hold the murder capitals of the USA while pointing the finger at San Fran and Chicago.
        • Also pointing out that Chicago has the strictest gun laws including sales as a failure of gun control but withholding the fact that the areas outside city limits do not have the same laws. The gun store that has the highest gun sales in Illinois is just outside Chicago city limits has nothing to do with anything.
          • Simple: Just compare the gun death rate in ANY city in the United States with ANY city in Canada. It's no comparison: way more gun deaths per capita in the U.S.

    • Remember when we had Craigslist personals? [npr.org] This is just the next step. Keep it illegal and underground to save children. Except it won't.

      This is why we can't have nice things. Idiots at every level, from voters to pressure groups to politicians. I'm sure some bozo thinks this somehow saved a life or prevented a girl from making money on her looks.

      Porn isn't illegal for adults to access in these states. The laws in Utah and these other states want a visitor to verify their age before consuming porn. It's already against federal law to show pornography to minors and adults must show ID before entering adult entertainment establishments. Adults also need to show ID to purchase alcohol and other age-restricted products. The new laws apply existing laws into online situations. That's generally a good thing.

      There are privacy concerns with the current imp

    • Pornhub brought it on themselves by explicitly condoning KP and revenge pr0n.

    • Filters work. They always lead to reduction. Use common sense

  • Vee Pee Enn (Score:3)

    by Your Anus ( 308149 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @01:46PM (#63583766) Journal
    With extra pee

  • It makes me feel old to remember when a household had one and only one computer to be shared by the entire family. I guess locking by device level makes sense today, but my gut reaction is "Wait, what about the computer owned by the adults and used by the kids?"

    • Wait, what about the computer owned by the adults and used by the kids?

      Modern computer OS's already have multiple accounts; I have my password, kid would have theirs, etc. Within a MacOS account, for instance, you can already restrict apps (which could include the web browser), so it's not a huge leap from there for websites to tag themselves (by law) as explicit and allow parents to say "nope" when setting up a kids account. By website should be possible as well (might already be, I haven't looked), so you

      • You are correct, there is already a meta tag to flag a page as adult. There are already device / browser controls to filter based on the meta tag. This technology has existed for many years. The current push (backed by Morality in Media) to force privacy invasive KYC has nothing to do with safety, it's about making it nigh impossible for adult websites to comply with 50 differing localities on the supply side and deterring adults on the demand side from visiting these sites because they rightly worry abo

    • It makes me feel old to remember when a household had one and only one computer to be shared by the entire family. I guess locking by device level makes sense today, but my gut reaction is "Wait, what about the computer owned by the adults and used by the kids?"

      I have a laptop owned by my work. My family shares a laptop. It's still expensive for middle class families to get a computer per family member.

  • Time to invest in VPNs (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @01:50PM (#63583776)

    In Utah, they are already seeing significant more business.

  • So no Mormon porn anymore? (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @01:53PM (#63583790)

    With holy underwear?

    • With holy underwear?

      This article is about laws in Virginia, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Let's take a look at the membership numbers for 31 Dec 2022 [churchofjesuschrist.org]. There are 35,405 members of the church in Arkansas - a little over 1% of the total population. There are 22,189 members of the church in Mississippi - 0.75% of the state's population. 97,449 members of the church live in Virginia - just over 1% of the state's population. I don't think Mormons are a big part of this story. Unless you are just fascinated by other people's underwear;

  • Remember how it happened after a whole bunch of arab nations decided to block porn?

  • "Protecting" children isn't the point (Score:5, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @01:59PM (#63583808)

    It's to discourage people from, and punish people for, watching porn, by others who disapprove. From TFA:

    Currently, Pornhub is complying with a Louisiana law requiring an ID to access the site, ... As a result of complying, Pornhub's Louisiana traffic dropped by approximately 80 percent as adult content seekers presumably chose to visit sites that do not require ID. This makes the Internet more unsafe, ...

    Pornhub reported that Louisiana users have already experienced identity theft as a result of the age verification law there.

    "Giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for age verification," Deville warned. "In fact, it will put children and your privacy at risk."

    • Yeah, but Pornhub already capitulated, purging the site of uploads unless they were verified; amid cries "It won't end there".

      Eventually they will learn the lesson of Larry Flint: if you give an inch, they will take a mile. In many respects, these are just states are just forcing Pornhub into uniformity with their policies for both uploaders and viewers.

      They haven't a leg to stand on.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by suutar ( 1860506 )

        They didn't say they wouldn't follow the law, they said it was stupid.

      • Ensuring folks aren't uploading private footage is not the same thing as laws requiring vague age verification. The consequences are wholly different.

  • Like the Evil bit, but different ... (Score:3)

    by Anne Thwacks ( 531696 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @02:08PM (#63583830)
    We need a "Porn" bit that is defined by user user login, and sent with TCP/IP packets to say that the user is OK with receiving adult content#. The Administrator who creates accounts can then say which accounts have the bit set. By default it is not set.

    If someone is able to hack their account settings, then either* :

    • They are old enough to watch adult content
    • They are perfectly capable of bypassing any other protection divisible by humans

    Alternatively, packets containing adult content could have the Porn bit set, and the recipient's machine machine do the censorship.

    Notes
    # Defining adult content is a fraught issue. In my experience, Europe and America have totally different ideas of what is adult material. * "protection" devised by AI is unlikely to work as intended.

    It might also be worth having a GDPR bit. If set, your data must be protected according to the GDPR laws. If your Locale is in Europe, this should be set automatically.

    • # Defining adult content is a fraught issue. In my experience, Europe and America have totally different ideas of what is adult material. * "protection" devised by AI is unlikely to work as intended.

      Which is probably why it's better to block it at the user equipment.
      All modern internet-browsing consumer electronics (home routers, phones) have ways to mitigate this without trying to push your morals outside of your home.

    • Quick! Ban XOR EAX EAX; NOT EAX Think of the children!!!!

    • how many legislative bits do you want?
      gdpr, porn in the US, nazi symbolism in .de

  • device-based age verification solutions

    How is that different from asking for an ID? You are just giving it to Microsoft, Google, whoever?

    • You mean the phone that has all my credit cards debit card drivers license and auto insurance?
      • How fucking stupid are you for fucking doing that?
        • he lives and participates in modern society. you call it stupid? most people call it survival.

  • The law doesn't go into effect for another 9 months. Plenty of time for a technology company to come up with a technological solution.

    Also, the Utah law is all about the "account": why doesn't the account just have three checkboxes "I am a Utah Resident" "I am a minor" and "This account has express consent of a parent or guardian."

    https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bill... [utah.gov]

    Clearly this law is infantile, so maybe infantile solutions are warranted. (What the heck is "friending" anyway, and where is this defined in th

    • The law doesn't go into effect for another 9 months. Plenty of time for a technology company to come up with a technological solution.

      Also, the Utah law is all about the "account": why doesn't the account just have three checkboxes "I am a Utah Resident" "I am a minor" and "This account has express consent of a parent or guardian."

      https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bill... [utah.gov]

      Clearly this law is infantile, so maybe infantile solutions are warranted. (What the heck is "friending" anyway, and where is this defined in the law?)

      I agree with your sentiments, but you addressed Utah's social media law, not the one which addresses online pornography. Once age and / or identity has been verified for an account, that fact could be stored by the site instead of asking for verification for every visit.

  • The Supreme Court is Evil (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rpnx ( 8338853 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @02:33PM (#63583880)
    This is an example of the evil perpetrated by the current U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has allowed states to rig unconstitutional laws such that it is impossible to challenge them. This is a form of pure evil and tyranny, a betrayal of the constitutional values that it once stood to protect. The abdication of the judicial duty that the Supreme Court is a form of evil, because the Supreme Court was understood as the protector of the constitution, but has abdicated that duty and blocked the lower courts from protecting the constitution with injunctions against these types of laws on procedural grounds. This kind of "procedure trumps rights" attitude of the Supreme Court is a form of evil that merits a dramatic expansion of the Supreme Court size or removal and replacement of judges by impeachment.

  • Yeah... Gonna guess not a lot of Reps are going to be getting emails on this one.

  • Quite refreshing to see intelligence and/or common sense with more than just pretty faces in the porn industry (a few actors and actresses have BS and higher education degrees from accredited universities, mind you).

    While there will always be ways for a local device setting to be bypassed (where there is a will, there is a way), blocking the access from the device instead of the creation of a gigantic database of IDs ready to be exploited or stolen, is not a bad thinking. It never did worked, though: anyone

    • You're right. And it's really weird that Pornhub is the one trying to come up with a right answer here, not the legislature.
      It kind of makes me wonder if the legislature is not acting entirely in good faith ;)

      • You're right. And it's really weird that Pornhub is the one trying to come up with a right answer here, not the legislature.

        It kind of makes me wonder if the legislature is not acting entirely in good faith ;)

        LOL, Pornhub isn't trying to come up with the "right answer". Pornhub is worried about it's profits because these age verifications WILL hurt their business. Pornhub doesn't give a tuppany-fuck about child safety. As far as they're concerned, kids accessing their site is a way to make addicts early on.

        • LOL, Pornhub isn't trying to come up with the "right answer".

          Yes... they are.

          Pornhub is worried about it's profits because these age verifications WILL hurt their business.

          Correct....

          Pornhub doesn't give a tuppany-fuck about child safety.

          They don't need to be concerned about child safety. They acknowledge society's concern, and offer a good-faith solution to it.

          As far as they're concerned, kids accessing their site is a way to make addicts early on.

          Oh boy.

          You're a porn is evil guy. Got it.

  • What about "free market" and "limited government"? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PJ6 ( 1151747 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @03:13PM (#63583950)
    If there's a need to protect our little snowflakes, private business will provide it, right?

    I thought conservative thinking was all about letting the invisible hand of the market do its thing, and not to have a "nanny state" or "big government".

    Or was all like, a load of shit?
    • No. They want a Nanny state where the Nanny is some denomination of Christian.
      • we already have this lol- remember: "one Nation under God" or whatever the pledge says.. Can you believe they make school kids recite that shit everyday? What in the North Korea is that.. Forced Patriotism is wild.

        • When I was a teacher my students would laugh when I always replaced that sentence with "One nation, under Thor.". The kids came up with even funnier ones.

    • Same thing that happened with the War on Drugs(tm).

    • If there's a need to protect our little snowflakes, private business will provide it, right?

      I thought conservative thinking was all about letting the invisible hand of the market do its thing, and not to have a "nanny state" or "big government".

      Or was all like, a load of shit?

      When did limited government preclude law enforcement? Limited government doesn't mean no government at all.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PJ6 ( 1151747 )

        If there's a need to protect our little snowflakes, private business will provide it, right?

        I thought conservative thinking was all about letting the invisible hand of the market do its thing, and not to have a "nanny state" or "big government".

        Or was that all like, a load of shit?

        When did limited government preclude law enforcement? Limited government doesn't mean no government at all.

        Excuse me? How did you read that in my comment?

        If it's not clear, we're talking about the laws themselves, not their enforcement. But I think you know that, and you're just trolling. Right?

  • Whoever voted for it should be liable for next data breach.

  • Does anyone know what specifically that means, if anything? Obviously they want to offload responsibility for age verification to a third party, but I'm more concerned with the details. On its face it sounds like requiring some new Google/Apple/MS service tying your account to a particular device. (Linux and dumbphone users S.o.L.)

    It wouldn't surprise me if big tech is already working on that kind of ID service, in anticipation of an LLM botpocalypse on social media. It would quickly become more necessary t

  • FOSTA on steroids (Score:3)

    by Randseed ( 132501 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @03:44PM (#63584042)
    It's (not entirely) surprising that probably the most religious state in the United States -- which exists because a bunch of pilgrims went there because of their Christian religion which disallows alcohol consumption: 1) Gets tax revenue from alcohol sales and licensing, 2) Has alcohol regulations that (IIRC) require that dispensers of liquor keep track of every milliliter they dispense to the point of having measuring devices on the bottles, 3) Doesn't realize that this is basically what they rant about when they talk about "The Mark of the Beast."

    Reading this bill, it basically outlaws use of anything with a wire attached to it for anyone under 18 without explicit parental consent, with eavesdropping provisions, and if it involves any communication methodology since, and including, the invention of the telegraph. There are obvious First Amendment issues (duh).

    Then there's the issue of whether this is regulating interstate commerce, which is the dominion of the federal government. To use one example, maybe they can argue that the telecommunications infrastructure is located within Utah, but how do they deal with satellite or radio communication, which is also federally regulated? Then there's the reality that they can't easily enforce this across state lines, there are VPNs, there is encryption, etc., so the most logical thing to do is for all the porn sites to rent hosting services in some other country.

    The idiocy of this astounds me, but I guess it should be expected. Next I guess some dipshit in the United States Congress will decide to introduce this on a national level.

  • Small government my ass. How about passing some laws that make parents accept some responsibility. If you can't manage that...then you shouldn't be allowed to have children.

  • What else can you say except Republican christians shoukd remember being a tosser is a sin.
  • Since there is some confusion about this, here is what pornhub is probably / hopefully talking about: rta label meta tag [rtalabel.org]. Basically just an adult meta tag that parental filters that already exist can detect. This technology is safe, effective and widespread. And it has existed for years with a robust set of support from device manufacturers. There is NO need for privacy violating KYC checks. I wish more people knew about the tech that already exists and just needs to be enabled by parents in the device

  • > adult entertainer Cherie Deville tells Pornhub users that instead of states requiring ID to access adult content, "the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to verify users' age at a device level and allow or block access to age-restricted materials and websites accordingly."

    Parents should be able to lock down a device to prevent access to restricted sites. Such sites should require nothing more than a flag of some kind that a standard tool can check for.

    And if p

  • It is quite worrying, the privacy implications. Its also probably futile trying to do these restrictions on a state by state basis. Though they will have some effect, just because many people will not use VPNs. Obviously many will, either because they really want porn or simply are curious, so the effect will be limited.

    All the same, one can see that however wrong headed their measures are, the legislators and the public who support them have legitimate reasons for concern. The easy availability and con

  • So PornHub want to delay these laws presumably until devices makers implement some sort of magic age verification technique into a majority of devices that access the internet. So, NEVER.

    What a bunch of self-serving hypocrites!

  • ... a user's electronic device into the proof of age ...

    Here, children aren't allowed to buy cell phones, so such verification will always claim the user is an adult.

    Google/Microsoft could offer a COPPA-compliant mode on their phones but they won't choose to stop spying on their subscribers.

    Remember, the far-right faithful claim "Capitalism will provide"? I see a flaw in their "invisible hand" plan: Porn-sites have already gotten paid, there's no benefit from asking the sex/race/age/religion of the viewer.

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