The unfortunate residents of Virginia have been denied access to Pornhub. They might not notice in a state named after a Virgin Queen that is just maintaining their puritanical tradition.
The President Pro tempore of the Senate of Virginia, State Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), called out Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin after an age-verification law lead to Pornhub blocking access for everyone in the state.
The law requires pornography websites operating in the state to work more aggressively to find out whether a visitor is 18 or older to gain access to the site. One of the approved methods of verification includes requiring users to upload copies government-issued identification.
Brilliant scheme that I’m sure will be effective in preventing under-age kids from witnessing perversions.
Even easier: grab Dad’s wallet while he’s taking a shower. You can also get his credit card while you’re at it.
The irony is that the law was written by a bunch of wankers.
Also I wonder how many god-fearing Virginians are going to have their ids leak on the dark web because of this stupid law.
Ironically, this decision has just made a million identity thieves come in their pants.
@gijoel that’s a feature, not a bug. They know can’t make it illegal to view porn, but this allows them to punish people for it anyway.
Will a Social Security or Medicare card work?
Somehow I’m seeing a lot of new online businesses providing images of Fake government issued identification that you can copy and paste in a few seconds.
The number of driver’s licenses from Freedonia or Transnistra just went up by a few million.
What happens if these online porn sites are hosted in foreign countries? I don’t see that Virginia has jurisdiction over Iceland or Kosovo.
It’s my understanding that many of the features we enjoy about the “internet” today were invented to solve business problems for the porn industry. I’m sure they can innovate around this obstacle in a more elegant way than blocking all IP addresses from a particular locale, which wouldn’t stop a clever teenager for long anyway.
There are so many ways to get around around this. Given the sheer number of porn sites on the internet I suspect that this is going to be a completely ineffective law.
One wonders if any of those lawmakers have money invested in various VPNs.
Looks like they are just following Utah’s lead : https://www.npr.org/2023/05/07/1174631536/a-new-utah-law-led-pornhub-to-ban-access-to-its-site-for-everyone-in-the-state
I doubt whatever firewall VA is using is any more sophisticated than the ones used in many libraries. A free online proxy server would likely be enough to get around it.
As retrograde as a law like this is, it at least is consistent. If you’re going to try to argue, like many Republicans are doing, that drag shows are “harmful to minors,” you should put your money where your mouth is and try to make it harder for them to access hardcore porn online.
That said, we all know what’s truly harmful to kids in this country but don’t expect anything to be done about that anytime soon. BTW, how many mass shootings have there been this year so far…?
But…but, I thought “Virginia was for lovers”??
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_is_for_Lovers
I remember a video game where they would ask a series of trivia questions at the start. These were questions that presumably only old people would know the answer to. Different versions of the game would be played depending on how well the player answered.
Walter Solomon @ #12—Depends on how you count, of course, but per Wikipedia on day 182 of the year the count is 272 shootings, 351 dead (excluding the shooter), 1,032 dead and wounded including the shooter. But why work on a problem that has the benefit of saving lives when you can work on a “sin” problem with mass appeal but little chance of doing anything.
robro @ 14
I’m sure our useless politicians offer their thoughts and prayers.
This is the same law that Louisiana has. There are several work-arounds for this law.
(1) Use a VPN and make the Pornhub site think you’re in another state.
(2) Use your cell phone — the 5G or LTE location may be somewhere outside the state with the porn restrictions (Louisiana, Virginia, etc). For example, Pornhub isn’t available on my phone when using Louisiana broadband internet (location in Louisiana) but is available when using 4G/LTE data in Louisiana which has a location in Texas. I suspect the same trick would work in many parts of Virginia.
(3) Porn sites outside the United States really don’t care about Louisiana laws and are not participating in the content blocking. Only US-based porn sites have to follow these state laws. I suspect the same thing is happening in Virginia.
This reminds me all too much of the way that publishers’ marketing departments 75 years ago hoped that their books would be banned in Boston.
Conjugations be damned (appropriately, if under age!).
As funny as it is to laugh over the fact Virginians can’t see Pornhub, it’s really myopic to think this is just about pornography. Yea, kids shouldn’t look at porn. Adults really shouldn’t look at porn either but for different reasons… (exploitative, misogynistic, unrealistic, etc.)
It’s also about prohibiting access to websites that include LGBT content. There’s lots of carveouts for certain content but if you think the Repubs aren’t going to try to force LGBT as sexual content then you’re not paying attention.
As Peter Boyle would say, “Holy Crap”. I just started reading this post and my slow mind noted the possible significance of the Hawaii license: it has a >> rainbow background image << . QUICK call Deathsantis and the Xtian Terrorist brigades! This demonic caring and inclusiveness must be stopped (is that sarcastic enough?)