Internet users in Florida have until December 31 to visit Pornhub. As of January 1, access to the pornographic site will simply be blocked statewide. This is the extreme solution found by Aylo, the site operator, to protest against new legislation requiring Internet users to prove that they are adults, by producing an identity document (a driving license, for example) .
How effective are these laws?
Several American states have implemented similar laws with vague outlines. In Florida, for example, sites that distribute content “ harmful to minors » are required to integrate an age verification system. The definition of “ harmful » is very broad: it concerns content that “ the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would judge the whole thing to be of prurient interest ».
Usually, each time such a law passes in a state, Pornhub geographically blocks access to its services (as has been the case in Texas since March).
Apart from the question of definition, the purely technical problem also arises. Should responsibility for age verification rest with Pornhub and porn sites? US lawmakers often use the example of liquor stores where customers must show identification to prove they are of legal age. But it’s not the same thing on the internet: “ It is an intrusive method that poses a significant risk to privacy », deplores the Free Speech Coalition, the lobby which represents porn sites.
« The best solution to make the Internet safer, maintain user privacy, and prevent children from accessing adult content is to perform age verification at the source: on the device itself “, says Aylo. An approach which is also that of Meta, which is lobbying in the United States for the age verification procedure to be managed by Apple and Google.
The catch is that these laws do not prevent Internet users in these states from accessing porn content online. They just need to use a VPN, or go to websites “ who do not require age verification, who do not follow the law, who do not take security seriously, and who often do not moderate content », explained Aylo at the time of the vote on a text in Ohio.
This debate around access to Pornhub and other porn sites is not limited to the United States. France also blocks services that have not implemented an age verification system – in this case, a bank card while waiting for something better. However, one site escaped administrative blocking thanks to an idiotic blunder by the complainants.
Read A stupid error allows a porn site to bypass access blocking
Pornhub is in the crosshairs of child defense associations, who have called for its access to be blocked in France. But the decision must go through the EU Court of Justice, which adds a few months of reprieve.
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Source :
Gizmodo
