No pornhub for Texans?

Apparently Pornhub is blocked in Texas 🙄

Virginia either. We aren't allowed fun things like porn here. 😕 Apparently, our lawmakers are pure and never ever masturbate.

Quote by MollyDoll

Virginia either. We aren't allowed fun things like porn here. 😕 Apparently, our lawmakers are pure and never ever masturbate.

Sure they don’t. 😳🤪

There's a bill making the rounds in Ottawa that would introduce age verification nationally here. However it is a Senate bill not initiated by the government so might not pass The House which is the branch of Parliament that matters in the end (our Senate is not as powerful as the American one). Our Conservative party is making noise about age verification, too, but security experts have concerns about how it is done and how the information used to verify age is stored.

Age verification on porn sites is something we need but is tough to implement. Honestly we don’t need a 12 year old surfing porn sites with no context.

That being said it’s also nearly impossible to set it up without privacy issues being fundamentally questioned. So I agree with these verifications in spirit but there’s no great framework with how to make it work.

Quote by RowanThorn
That being said it’s also nearly impossible to set it up without privacy issues being fundamentally questioned.

This. Our Senate has a bill going to make age verification mandatory here (Pornhub's parent company is actually Canadian). Our government seems uninterested so it will likely not make it through the House (in our Parliamentary system, the elected House dominates over the unelected Senate) but it has been criticised by IT security and privacy experts for just this reason. This is no reliable, secure system out there for doing age verification. We would end up handing over our driver's license or something to providers of dubious security and trustworthiness.

But, yeah, on paper I see the point of why people are trying to do this. It just isn't feasible right now.

Even if you did have drivers license verification and let’s say it was secure (big assumption there) what’s to stop a kid from grabbing his Dad’s wallet and getting his name/number and any info that needs inputted. In real life when you are carded they can look at your face and the license.

Digitally what do they expect? That you’ll sit for a face scan? It’s just so easy to exploit in so many ways. The government would need to ground up build a digital age authentication system that outside websites would use. And then you have issues with government tracking very embarrassing and private data such as what sites you are using your digital ID on.

It’s a mess the government has put off far too long to make any elegant solution for.

Sadly, our Conservative Party have talked about digital ID but seem to have no actual plan or understanding of the implications.

Which is precisely what you would need in place before trying to demand age restrictions on web sites.

"...there has been an uptick in the sales of VPN software..."

Quote by RowanThorn

Digitally what do they expect? That you’ll sit for a face scan? It’s just so easy to exploit in so many ways. The government would need to ground up build a digital age authentication system that outside websites would use. And then you have issues with government tracking very embarrassing and private data such as what sites you are using your digital ID on.

It’s a mess the government has put off far too long to make any elegant solution for.

I think a digital ID would have your passport associated with your National Insurance / Social Security Number (location depending), your bank details and also a validated email address.

Couldn't guarentee that, but it seems most logical.

Well, there goes my porn surfing days. Bye bye, MySweetApple (favorite Pornhub community contributor).

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-worst-state-work-18204395.php

Having failed to proselytize their beliefs on us, the radical evangelicals now seek to legislate their beliefs and lifestyles on us :-(

Just heard from PrickPussyLuvr2 that xhamster is blocked in his home state of Texas too. Sucks for Texans

I don’t think there is a way to truly age verify without something along the lines of a national digital ID, which I very much oppose. That will spell the end of privacy. As it is, Google is insinuating themselves into half the sites on the web now (including xhamster as of a couple months ago), trying to get us to sign on using their ID. Fuck no! I’m not giving them the data on my porn surfing (and story writing) habits!

You could at least require a paywall to view porn, which isn’t going to stop teenagers from borrowing mom’s credit card, but will stop most of the twelve year olds.

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/14/texas-pornhub-5th-circuit-age-verification-paxton/#:~:text=Pornhub%2C%20one%20of%20the%20most,health%20warnings%20on%20its%20pages.

Quote by RowanThorn

Age verification on porn sites is something we need but is tough to implement. Honestly, we don’t need a 12-year-old surfing porn sites with no context.

That being said it’s also nearly impossible to set it up without privacy issues being fundamentally questioned. So I agree with these verifications in spirit but there’s no great framework with how to make it work.

This sounds like a failure of parenting if adolescents access adult sites, Yes, age verification is important but most adults/parents don't know how to set up parental blocks on the media services they pay for, to protect underage eyes from seeing things they don't need to see. Teach parents that, and it solves a large chunk of the problem, That way when folk are of appropriate age, they can do grown folk things.

Adults / parents also will rarely know how to set up a simple low cost/free VPN or proxy server link to disguise the state you are in. 14 to 18 year olds? Without a doubt!

Quote by MollyDoll

Virginia either. We aren't allowed fun things like porn here. 😕 Apparently, our lawmakers are pure and never ever masturbate.

So true Molly Doll. And it's not just Pornhub. A lot of the better/safer porn sites are blocked. There are a couple XNXX and XVideos that don't seem to be affected by this stupid ass ban.

Quote by darkroot50

So true Molly Doll. And it's not just Pornhub. A lot of the better/safer porn sites are blocked. There are a couple XNXX and XVideos that don't seem to be affected by this stupid ass ban.

😳 XNXX isn’t part of the ban? The powers that be probably don't know what decadence can be found there. Lol.

Quote by techgoddess

😳 XNXX isn’t part of the ban? The powers that be probably don't know what decadence can be found there. Lol.

Not sure why a big site like XNXX (or sister site XVIDEOS) has escaped the "big brother" oversight of our legislators. But glad they haven't yet.

Quote by LuceDevlin

This sounds like a failure of parenting if adolescents access adult sites, Yes, age verification is important but most adults/parents don't know how to set up parental blocks on the media services they pay for, to protect underage eyes from seeing things they don't need to see. Teach parents that, and it solves a large chunk of the problem, That way when folk are of appropriate age, they can do grown folk things.

I infinitely believe kids are faster with the tech than their parents. Also can’t put parental blocks on every piece of tech a kid could get a hold of.

When I was in high school we knew more about firewalls and getting around security than the IT professional the district hired for the school computers.

On your note though, good parenting is how you put your kid on a good track. Trying to avoid sex being seen as or shameful and having open and honest talks with my kids when they ask questions I believe puts them on the right track to making correct decisions and contextualizing what they see online. I let them know that I occasionally check their general internet activity for their safety and as they get older and more mature I do it less and less.

Couldn’t agree more, Rowan. You do what you can technically, but at some point what’s more important is real parenting and instilling the right values in your kids.

Indiana as well. Just as easy to get around as anything else with region restrictions. VPN and set your location to the nearest state that doesn't have a ban.