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Pornhub goes dark in Arkansas after age verification law kicks in (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by trashhalo@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org
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Pornhub blocked all users in Arkansas after the state's new age verification law went into effect on Tuesday. The law requires porn sites to verify that users are at least 18 years old. Pornhub argued that requiring ID verification actually harms users' privacy and puts children at risk. MindGeek, Pornhub's operator, has decided to block access from states with similar age verification laws. After complying with a similar law in Louisiana, Pornhub traffic dropped by 80%, so they decided blocking access entirely was preferable to implementing age verification.

States they have blocked for similar laws: Virginia, Utah, Mississippi.

In Louisiana the first state to do this they tried to comply and their traffic decreased by 80%.

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[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 97 points 1 year ago

Good. Let all the conservative boomers who can't figure out VPNs get pissed at their legislators for trying to push this b.s.

If they get this to be normalized, next up will be "well there are other sites we can't control, so now you need to put in your ID card into a reader anytime you're online!"

[-] DarkGamer@kbin.social 39 points 1 year ago

Republicans would love to have their own version of WeChat and their own great firewall. That's what Musk is planning to do with whatever he's calling twitter now, after all.

[-] SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

That's what Facebook's plan was as well, they called it the "Metaverse." Everyone thought it was a VR thing, but they want to have their own version of the Internet that people use instead of separate services.

[-] TheOtherJake@beehaw.org 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm sure they will eventually try to force ID's because it would be profitable for criminal data theft ads stalkers. This is all about corrupt money and exploitation. Billionaires are worthless parasites that have no right to exist in a Democratic system. Fuck the US fascist oligarchy party.

[-] cobra89@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

Small d democratic system. And funny how all the states that have enacted these laws have something in common. And it isn't the big D...

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 31 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Pornhub operator MindGeek has blocked all users in Arkansas from the site after the state’s new age verification law went into effect on Tuesday.

The Arkansas law, SB 66, doesn’t ban Pornhub from operating in the state, but it requires porn sites to verify that a user is 18 by confirming their age with identifying documents.

On Wednesday, Pornhub blocked all traffic from IP addresses based in Arkansas in protest, arguing that the law, which was intended to protect children, actually harms users.

“While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk,” MindGeek wrote in a message replacing the site’s front page for affected users.

Responding to this wave of bans, MindGeek has decided to block access to its sites from states where the laws have gone into effect.

So, instead of rolling out age verification systems, it says it decided to block access entirely, calling on users to contact their state representatives to oppose these laws.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 1 year ago

I sense a lot of pastors who now have to be reading the bible like they said they were

[-] LastOneStanding@beehaw.org 24 points 1 year ago

So, you know, I was a child in the 1980s, still had access to porn. In magazines, on VHS. They won't stop making porn. If it's out there, the people will access. The people who made these laws will access, no doubt. So dumb.

[-] joenotjim@beehaw.org 24 points 1 year ago

The problem is not access, it's unlimited instant access. We had to wait until our parents weren't home to raid Dad's stash. Or catch a tape from someone's uncle at a sleepover. It's a world of difference.

That being said, blocking is not the answer. Blocking the major sites just pushes people to smaller sites, which may be more likely to harbor revenge porn, underage content, nonconsensual content, etc.

[-] LastOneStanding@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago

I really don't see the difference. Instant access versus delayed access.. sounds like a Freud book I read about once about the pleasure principle. It's all silly. The timing has nothing to do with anything. As a matter of fact, you've just argued yourself out of your own argument and made my point all over again. You can see it tomorrow, you can have it today. You can delay your pleasure. You can choose not to delay your pleasure. You can delay your pleasure because that's what pleasures you.

[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

According to the cookies experiment, learning to delay instant rewards in exchange for higher future rewards, is a skill usually acquired at a young age that leads to higher success rates later in life.

Applied to sexual pleasure, the choice might be less relevant in adults, but growing up and getting used to instant unlimited gratification, sounds like a way to end up with an incel/rape culture mindset.

[-] fuzzywolf23@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

I think it's dangerous and disingenuous to substitute your imagination for evidence when describing a trend that doesn't appear to exist.

Reported rates of rape are the same in 2020 as in 1990

[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Let's substitute your comment with the actual data, in case someone can spot a trend:

[-] fuzzywolf23@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

That downward slope there? That's the prime years of the first generation coming into their own with internet porn; pornhub launched in 2007. 2014 is clearly subject to some effect -- there's reason to think it's increased rates of reporting -- but we're literally back at 1990 levels in terms of reporting. If you're going to blame 2014 on porn that had been around 15 years, then how do you explain the early 90s?

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[-] LastOneStanding@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that makes sense.

[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 23 points 1 year ago

Oh were those the cries I heard in the night?

[-] unconsciousvoidling@lemmy.one 16 points 1 year ago

Well if you live in Arkansas it wasn’t your neighbor watching porn.

[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 17 points 1 year ago

Some dude is marking up his vhs collection for a tidy profit.

[-] JCPhoenix@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

Mmm Analog Porn. I'd say HiFi, but as a kid, I, uhh, "accidentally" stumbled upon my dad's porn VHSs. They were anything but HiFi.

[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 8 points 1 year ago

I assume it’s all classic, traditionally rooted porn aligned with good ol’ day family values so it should be fine for them.

[-] I_Miss_Daniel@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Nor was the one I found - at least not after I lugged the second VCR out of my room to make a copy.

[-] 6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 year ago

Louisiana government just recently got hacked and I'm absolutely sure the porn verification stuff got leaked along with it.

[-] acastcandream@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

spoilersdfsaf

[-] Kajo@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago

In sustained French, "verge" is a synonym for "penis". So, it made me smile to see an article about Pornhub in TheVerge.

[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For extra linguistic amusement, they also mention the state of Virginia, etymologically descending from "virgin" from Latin "virgo", which descended from "virga", which happens to also have been an euphemism for "penis" in Latin, from where it descended into the French "verge" keeping the meaning, and from there to the English "verge", where initially did also mean "penis", but lost the meaning over time.

So, when reading about PornHub in Virginia on TheVerge... you can smile twice, or more 😉

[-] Kajo@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

Thank you for linguistic enlightenment, and for the extra smiles.

[-] runiq@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Thank you for making the article ~20% cooler

[-] I_Miss_Daniel@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

That's a cocky observation.

[-] balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Call me greatness the way I'm always on the verge

[-] burningmatches@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

Sustained French?

[-] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Ouiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

[-] Kajo@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Looks like I was betrayed by deepl..

I meant formal/elevated langage.

[-] theodewere@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

lol @ the morons who vote for the idiots making these laws.. and at the ones not voting against them..

[-] fades@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago

But now where will these fascists find their LGBT porn?

[-] Pratai@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

Oh no… people will have to visit one of the other 3,000 or so porn sites that are carbon copies of PH.

[-] mojo@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

PH isn't the villain here... Also those sites would legally be required to block access as well.

[-] Nepenthe@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

So...not that I will ever be for such an idea, but how is requiring ID putting kids at risk. I thought that was a misquote, but no, that's what the article itself says. Are we really just saying whatever random words come to mind these days?

[-] bane_killgrind@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

Probably kids will increase risk to themselves by using less secure sites, using chat platforms to source pornography, or uploading their real ID to people providing photoshopping services.

[-] Maestro@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

Their personal data will need to be stored somewhere for this to work, and it will leak. Eventually. Security always fails. And with these government age ID systems built by the lowest bidder it will fail sooner rather than later.

[-] mojo@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

It's puts everyone at risk. How do you expect that to be securely checked? Not only is it basically privacy invasive to the maximum, but you're giving your government ID to multiple different sites who now have the job of securing your ID. With how many hacks go on nowadays, your ID is the last thing you want to get leaked. It's not much different from getting your SSN hacked.

[-] bane_killgrind@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Government run Oauth is the only real way to implement this, with zero PII being provided to the porn sites. All they get is an anonymised token when you log in.
Then again, the government Oauth service needs to be hardened in that case, but presumably government web stuff has government level security practices.

[-] brothershamus@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

They're still running Windows. It's a bad idea.

[-] LastOneStanding@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

It means nothing, like you have made clear.

[-] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 year ago

This is a terrible day for Sarah Huckabee's husband

[-] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

VPN's getting popular in Arkansas

[-] Uniquitous@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

They'll be fine so long as they still have their cousins.

this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
209 points (100.0% liked)

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