Pornhub protests Utah age verification law by blocking the state's access

[midian182]

What just happened? MindGeek, the owner of adult platforms such as Pornhub, has blocked everyone in Utah from accessing its sites in protest of the state's age verification law that has just come into effect.

Utah has been fighting against online pornography for years. It called porn a public health crisis in 2016 and previously proposed that all smartphones and tablets in the state automatically block pornography. An age verification law was eventually passed in March, requiring users visiting adult platforms deemed "harmful to minors" to verify their age before being allowed access. Axios writes that any companies that don't comply with the law will be liable if they're sued over minors accessing their content.

Now that the law has gone into effect, MindGeek has responded by blocking anyone in Utah who tries to access Pornhub. Those with Utah IPs will see only a video of adult performer Cherie DeVille, a member of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, explaining the reason for the block.

"As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website," DeVille says. "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."

DeVille adds that "mandating age verification without proper enforcement" drives users to other sites with fewer safety measures in place.

MindGeek's belief is that the most effective solution for protecting children is to identify users by their devices and allow access to age-restricted material based on that identification. "Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah," DeVille continued, before asking visitors to contact their representatives and demand device-based verification solutions.

Utah isn't the only state requiring adult sites to use age-verification systems. Louisiana passed a similar bill earlier this year, and many other states have done the same. Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, told FOX 13 News that as Pornhub was complying with similar laws elsewhere, he expects that MindGeek will eventually remove the block and comply with the Utah bill as well.

Utah's new laws also extend to social media companies. From March 1 next year, those under 18 will require a parent's permission before opening an account on social media platforms. Companies must also give parents access to their kids' posts, messages, and responses; are barred "from using a design or feature that causes a minor to have an addiction to the company's social media platform;" and must block under-18s from using social media between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98524-pornhub-protests-utah-age-verification-law-blocking-state.html

 

[Arcmanov]

Sucks to be a Utah resident, I guess?

 

[Nobina]

Aren't Utah citizens mostly against porn anyway?

 

[hover389]

Sucks to be a Utah resident, I guess?

Not really when there's hundreds of other popular free porn sites out there

 

[psycros]

When you want to know who's after your kids, you need only look at who opposes common-sense measures to protect them.

 

[nulll]

There is definitely a place in society for porn but we've really got to start looking at the downstream affects. Whether it's ED becoming more than an anecdotal concern in men under 25 or the general loss of interest from that same age group in seeking out partners for experimentation and intercourse, this is being more firmly represented across the genders. Porn addiction was basically a south park and family guy gag 15 years ago while today there are some seriously credentialed sex and relationship researchers across the world beginning to really beat the drum about how serious of a problem this is becoming.

This in no way suggests that Utah has the correct response here as their legislation is basically useless aside from maybe causing some noise to give folks pause to wonder for a second about how much adult content their kids are actually absorbing from their phones.

 

[Sir Sparkles]

Forcing unknown entities to provide identification online to access something that is available pretty much universally on the internet. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[kiwigraeme]

Shame an ID card would of stopped horny 13 year olds dead in their tracks.
My take from my travels - the more taboo sex is - the more people obsess about it.
Better education and moderate safeguards - and enforcement against bad stuff and bad operators

 

[NintPlayBox]

Aren't Utah citizens mostly against porn anyway?

It doesn't mean people in Utah don't masturbate.

 

[human7]

Governments shouldn't be regulating this. If the citizens want to consume "objectionable" content, that's their prerogative, and government censorship will only increase the interest in that form of content.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

When you want to know who's after your kids, you need only look at who opposes common-sense measures to protect them.

This ^^

 

[AlaskaGuy]

Governments shouldn't be regulating this. If the citizens want to consume "objectionable" content, that's their prerogative, and government censorship will only increase the interest in that form of content.

You seem to have a problem with children not being able to access PornHub?

 

[Sir Sparkles]

Do you guys really think someone providing an ID online proves their age? And if they don't have one to provide that there isn't literally a million other places to access smut within a few clicks?

The only common sense suggestions I've seen are education, all the others appear as naive posturing.

 

[Homerlovesbeer]

Surely a VPN logged into another state would bypass any Utah state requirements anyway?

 

[human7]

You seem to have a problem with children not being able to access PornHub?

If the government can decide what content children can and cannot access in the general sense (not just in the educational settings), what is to prevent them from doing the same thing for adults? Indeed, they are already trying to ban TikTok.
Let society, families, parents, and individuals figure out for themselves what content should be consumed and what content should not. That's what freedom is all about. And yes, when people have freedom, sometimes they make the wrong choice. That's a risk we take for freedom.

 

[dualkelly]

If the government can decide what content children can and cannot access in the general sense (not just in the educational settings), what is to prevent them from doing the same thing for adults? Indeed, they are already trying to ban TikTok.
Let society, families, parents, and individuals figure out for themselves what content should be consumed and what content should not. That's what freedom is all about. And yes, when people have freedom, sometimes they make the wrong choice. That's a risk we take for freedom.

Conservatives are all about lip services of protecting the children however they take their children to church where they get raped by priest not by the hundreds but by the tens of thousands. I don't see them trying to stop kids from going to church.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

If the government can decide what content children can and cannot access in the general sense (not just in the educational settings), what is to prevent them from doing the same thing for adults? Indeed, they are already trying to ban TikTok.
Let society, families, parents, and individuals figure out for themselves what content should be consumed and what content should not. That's what freedom is all about. And yes, when people have freedom, sometimes they make the wrong choice. That's a risk we take for freedom.

With that line of thinking it would be ok for little children to purchase weed and booze while visiting strip clubs as long as the parents said it was ok with them.

 

[human7]

With that line of thinking it would be ok for little children to purchase weed and booze while visiting strip clubs as long as the parents said it was ok with them.

Who is more in distress? The children, or the parents who let them do this?

Let's get right down to the core of this, shall we? This law is not about preventing kids from accessing Pornhub. It was never about preventing kids from accessing Pornhub. Here's how this law works: law requires porn sites to verify age of visitors, reputable porn sites comply, kids and everyone else don't give a **** and find porn and who knows what else from less reputable websites, obscenity thrives as it always has.

This law is about the government deciding what people can watch. About censorship. About control. Censorship is not the government's job. Deciding morality is not the government's job. Regulating speech is not the government's job.

Give me liberty, or give me death. And if I make mistakes with my liberty? Excellent. Because that means it is truly freedom.

Will some parent out there be a ******* and give their children free reign to drink booze and watch Pornhub? Absolutely. No law on the books will prevent that kind of stupidity. But you know what the laws on the books will do? Take away our freedoms. Laws set precedents. And they won't stop with speech.

It's true that our rights and liberties end where another's begins. There is a place for government regulation. This isn't it.