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Half of the US Now Requires You to Upload Your ID or Scan Your Face to Watch Porn (www.404media.co)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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As of this week, half of the states in the U.S. are under restrictive age verification laws that require adults to hand over their biometric and personal identification to access legal porn.

Missouri became the 25th state to enact its own age verification law on Sunday. As it’s done in multiple other states, Pornhub and its network of sister sites—some of the largest adult content platforms in the world—pulled service in Missouri, replacing their homepages with a video of performer Cherie DeVille speaking about the privacy risks and chilling effects of age verification.

Archive: http://archive.today/uZB13

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[–] 419 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Everyone who ever submits for age verification will have their information stolen. It is a matter of when, not if.

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  • [–] 128 points 9 months ago* (4 children)

    I mean, a VPN is way cheaper than whatever hoops Idaho wants you to jump through to watch some 10/10 goth hottie get their ass eaten.

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  • [–] 86 points 9 months ago (8 children)

    Yea, but soon we’ll have no states to vpn to, and we will have to start using the Quebec servers, then all the websites will be in French and I’ll have to learn a new language.

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  • [–] 24 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I VPN to Montreal servers. Everything is still displayed in English.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Interesting…all of it? I’m in Ontario but my hub/ISP is in Quebec so all my random advertising is in French.

    Somehow it knows to target advertising to you in English…maybe you need to work on your privacy?

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I've got a lot of privacy stuff, but I also know that I'm being tracked. I'm not using the VPN for privacy though. I'm using it to watch porn, so I don't really care. If I did want privacy there's a lot of things I could improve, but I'm not that worried about it.

    As for the targeted advertising, I don't see any of that. I wouldn't be surprised if that were in French but I wouldn't know.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    Yeah…I don’t really know what I’m talking about…it’s not like I make much of an effort for privacy. I’m guess it’s just my particular ISP. It’s like…the random advertising is in French…but if they know who I am it’s targeted…it’s mixed.

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    soon we’ll have no states to vpn to

    I've yet to see any state legislature take that proposal seriously. Unlike trying to make porn sites take your credit card info in advance (a policy they hated so much gosh darn it!) you're really fucking with the money when you try and regulate VPNs. Also, just... not really that practical. For the same reason Congress has been pretty toothless when it comes to regulating Torrents and digital encryption, going after VPNs at the regulatory level is something of a technological rabbit hole.

    then all the websites will be in French

    Nothing will ever make anyone on the internet learn a language other than English.

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I’ve yet to see any state legislature take that proposal seriously

    snekerpimp meant if every state requires ID, then VPN to another state will not get around the ID check.

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    Setting aside the fact that there's no appetite for these laws in liberal states because its purely a conservative fetish, you can still get porn on the internet without going to the big corporate online clearinghouses.

    FFS, there was porn on Napster back in the day.

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    There's no appetite for these laws in the voter public of any state, as far as I can tell given how VPN usage skyrockets in every state where these laws are put in place. Is California no longer liberal? Also consider the people running sites in any of the states that have such a law. They may resort to just blanket ID-checking everyone rather than risk prosecution.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    There’s no appetite for these laws in the voter public of any state

    Evangelical right-wing states have a huge contingent of politicians who compete with one another to be the toughest on "child sex trafficking" and other Epstein-tangential topics. So, in the GOP primary, you get a lot of promises about how you're going to round up all the pedos and put them to the sword or whatever. And this inevitably manifests as "please insert your dick into this pepper grinder to access the pornography" laws, as a sort-of practical compromise.

    Is California no longer liberal?

    Current Status: Failed (2024-08-15: In committee: Held under submission.)

    Looks like they're retaining their title. That said, if you peak under the "Supporters and Opponents" what you're going to see in the Supporters section is a litany of right-wing evangelical organizations and a couple of mega-corps.

    They may resort to just blanket ID-checking everyone rather than risk prosecution.

    The current strategy appears to be refusing to host content in the regulated states. Even then, there are plenty of social media and general content distribution channels that dodge the regulation by claiming to be content-blind in how they serve their data. I don't see Facebook or YouTube getting the business end of any of these regulations. Almost as though they're toothless if you've got enough money to tip your Congresscritters.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    Evangelical right-wing states have a huge contingent of politicians who compete with one another to be the toughest on "child sex trafficking" and other Epstein-tangential topics. So, in the GOP primary, you get a lot of promises about how you're going to round up all the pedos and put them to the sword or whatever. And this inevitably manifests as "please insert your dick into this pepper grinder to access the pornography" laws, as a sort-of practical compromise.

    I'd say rather than a compromise, the "protect the children!" porn bans are an excuse to go after LGBTQ content by marking any and all content related to them as explicit and demonizing them as pedophiles going after children. They don't care who it hurts along the way.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    Napster was audio only. Did you mean limewire, or kazaa, or one of the many napster clones that came after?

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    Napster was audio only.

    It was file type specific and had a soft file side limit, but that's easy enough to work around.

    Did you mean limewire, or kazaa, or one of the many napster clones that came after?

    They all had it as well, yes

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago

    This is the plan all along. It’s not about porn, it’s not even about control. It’s about teaching Americans a second language. You know who’s behind this? Duolingo and Big Language.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago*

    Heh. I’m in Ontario, but I guess my DNS is outta Quebec…so most of my banner/insert advertising is in French. It’s fucking awesome because I have no idea what they’re saying or advertising to me most of the time. Highly recommend.

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  • [–] 28 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    States are also considering banning VPNs now as well. This will never work and is a horrible idea, but it’s being considered.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    States are also considering banning VPNs now as well.

    Well, some legislators have proposed taking wack-a-mole to the next level and demanding all VPNs be certified and regulated. But good luck getting that passed through the Silicon Valley Presidency or the Ancap Courts.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I would count on them being hypocritical. The rich will just use Starlink.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago

    As a watcher from the outside:

    It might not be fun to hear but vpn is neither the solution to government oppression nor a solution against tracking (recently there was a good article regarding that) so all you do is pay more.

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  • [–] 20 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    yeah I barely can bring myself to give like Fidelity or Charles Schwab photos of my ID, just even having a digital image of my ID on my computer feels wrong lol

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  • [–] 19 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Ironically? If we were a less prudish society this genuinely wouldn't matter.

    "Oh no! Sarah likes threesome porn. Uhm... okay?"

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  • [–] 51 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I don’t think that’s the main reason folks are concerned about having their government IDs stolen.

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  • [–] 28 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, people already browse porn with zero privacy precautions, so linking their fetishes to them would be trivial. The main concern is having yet another privacy vulnerability vector for identity theft.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (2 children)

    And there are so many of those these days that a new one genuinely doesn't matter.

    If you haven't been offered a free year of identity theft insurance recently? Some company/org is plugging their ears.

    SSNs are a fundamentally broken system (look it up). Photo IDs? I will guarantee you that if you go to ANY city there is someone at the DMV who will look up whatever you want for fifty bucks. The ONLY reason credit card fraud is less massive than it is (and it is MASSIVE) is because the CC companies put in the effort to monitor that and lock it down.

    EVERYONE should have their credit records locked unless they are actively applying for something.

    No. the issue with these is that we live in an increasingly christofacist society where even looking at porn makes you Unclean. And if you look at the wrong porn? Off to the reeducation camps with you!

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  • [–] 20 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Um, having direct access to pull my government photo ID is a huge deal. Lots of online services require photo ID or other more in-depth verification to pull loans and stuff. So yes, this new vector IS a serious concern.

    And paying someone $50 at any DMV? C'mon, man, that sounds like some unfounded bullshit. Hardly anyone is going to risk a cushy government job with solid benefits and great hours for fucking $50, let alone the potential risk of going to jail.

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  • [+] -7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Your "government photo ID" really isn't all that useful unless people are skilled enough to make fakes (which is a whole different mess). What matters is your SSN, your credit card number, your address, etc.

    And those are basically everywhere.

    As for the DMV thing: You sweet summer child.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    this "you'd have to make a fake to use it!!" argument is especially ridiculous when you've posted on a story about submitting a picture of your photo ID in place of a physical one. and one of the pieces of info you say actually "matters" is literally written on said ID

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  • [–] -4 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    Huh?

    If you go to a bar with an ID you cut out of printer paper, they are going to throw your ass out Jazzy Jeff style. The actual ID isn't useful without a LOT of additional resources... at which point your photo means almost nothing.

    As for stuff like addresses? Again, that is basically EVERYWHERE because just about EVERY org has a data breach at least once a year. You might as well be saying people need your long form birth certificate to know what your name is.

    Like... I'mma be blunt with you. A lot of the "your photo ID is the most important secure thing ever" nonsense comes from republican chuds trying to disenfranchise voters who live in cities. It is the idea that your photo ID is some magical artifact that protects you when the reality is that it is basically just a way to tie your name to your face. All the pertinent information is everywhere else.

    Like... photo IDs tend to be one of those weird cases where we are ACTUALLY using biometrics (in this case, appearance) as a login rather than a password. Anything of value will just use that to cross reference you with an entry that is already in a system.

    And in terms of the actual avenues for fraud? That ID doesn't mean shit.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 child)

    my dude nobody is using a stolen identity to go to a bar. they're taking out lines of credit and you don't have to always present a physical, photo ID for those because there are entire industries of creditors that have no physical location. you don't even seem to be aware of the reasons why someone would bother stealing someone's identity so if you'd like to continue this argument I invite you to have it with yourself.

    edit: and MAJOR lol at using a bar as your example. establishments well known for being sticklers about the quality of fake IDs you "sweet summer child"

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  • [–] -5 points 9 months ago

    And legit creditors just need your SSN, address, and maybe an old address. They run a credit check (hence why you freeze that shit) and then you are driving away in your 4k a month pickup truck.

    And less legit creditors... don't ask too many questions other than where you live and where your loved ones love.

    But hey. Feel free to throw a hissy fit rather than think through why that plastic card actually doesn't matter anywhere near as much as you thought it did. I mean, it would be nicer if you could actually sit and think and learn. But this is the 2020s. Ain't nobody doing introspection.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    It's not really about the porn in the first place (for advertisers it is - they hate sex unless it's selling their product). The porn is merely an avenue to attack another minority group. In this case, LGBTQ people. Make everything about them sexual in some way, and then ban them from life for sexual deviancy.

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