Pornhub goes dark in Arkansas after age verification law kicks in::Pornhub operator MindGeek has blocked all users in Arkansas from the site after the state’s new age verification law went into effect.

  • DLSchichtl@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Wanna control the media your kids consume? Take away the screen. Or at the very least watch with them to filter their intake.

    Sidenote: I live in AR and my very republican boss is livid about this. Reap what you sow, my dude.

      • Captain_Nipples@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I know a lot of Republicans that hate how both parties have become. We need some independents to vote for. There’s a lot of us that are caught in the middle. I agree with the small govt part of traditional Republicans, and agree with a lot of what the left has. For whatever reason. All we get is some bullshit extreme from either side.

        What about normal ass people that just want people to leave them the fuck alone, pay taxes, keep their roads working, and stop wasting (literally stealing) our fucking money

    • Iron Lynx@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      For a party that prides itself on being all about “small government” and “no nanny state,” this is some surprisingly big government nanny state shenanigans

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        The small government libertarian types were lowered in priority in the party after two decades of people pandering to them because there’s basically nobody out there that’s a fiscal conservative and a social liberal.

        Trump and his grip on the GOP are evidence again of that same thing. There are more “conservatives” that are actually fiscal liberals and social conservatives than there are right libertarians.

        The rich would (for the most part) love to get the tax breaks and allow people to do whatever they want socially, but that (and virtue signaling) are not enough to rile up the fascist voters and evangelicals anymore.

        They’ve crossed the Rubicon with Trump and now it’s full on censorship and other Nazi tactics to take us back to the good old (non-existent) days.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Who in their right mind would expect a free porn site to go to this level of hassle?

    Or is this a puritanical measure in disguise?

    • Potato_in_my_anus@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      When this happened in Utah a few months ago, Google searches for VPN increased in like over 1000%.

      The best Free VPN IMO is ProtonVPN,

      • NoStressyJessie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 years ago

        For a general user that just wants a comprehensive google replacement, proton unlimited at $12/mo is a pretty good deal. Comes with the VPN premium and a password manager (now).

    • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      VPN industry lobbyists disguised as morality crusaders if you like tin foil hats as much as I do. Most likely not though, just people who feel the need to control how others spend their time and precious bodily fluids.

    • Icaria@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I get the impression not a lot of people were reading, writing, or wiping there even when it was legal.

    • Scrongle@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Not sure what the spirit is behind this comment, but for all the cases that could be made in advocacy for porn, I don’t think this should be one. If porn is the only thing keeping rape cases from drastically increasing, there is something much more broken in our society, and access to porn won’t fix that.

      Edit: Holy shit, guys. I thought poor reading comprehension and inflammatory dog-piling was something that wouldn’t be so commonplace, after moving here from Reddit. Where did I say I support anything about what these pieces of legislation are enforcing? Every single response I’ve gotten so far has been arguing different points of discussion, of which my comment has nothing to do with. All I said was “GIVE THE RAPISTS THEIR PORN SO WE CAN BE SAFE!!!” isn’t exactly a strong angle to approach the issue from. One user is even sharing a study that includes data showing that giving pedophiles access to child pornography reduces rates of sexual assault with children. Like, no shit, but is the lack of child pornography really the core issue at that point? Don’t bother replying to me if you just want to put words in my mouth, and assume my stances on topics which I so far haven’t shared.

      • CapraObscura@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        The spirit is quite clearly that rape and abuse numbers will likely go up slightly anywhere porn is banned.

        Nobody said “drastically.”

        • Resistentialism@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Holy shit I never thought I’d get to use line before.

          “Anyway, walk to your cars in pairs tonight. Rape’s up 8 percent”

      • willis936@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        You’d rather rape rates be higher because the knob we know we can turn is slightly distasteful?

        Edit: GP is a coward and edited their comment rather than try to defend their pro-rape stance.

        • Scrongle@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I am utterly unsurprised that there is evidence of a correlation between access to pornography and rates of sex-related crimes. However, I stand by what I said.

          • CapraObscura@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            “We shouldn’t use evidence that banning porn has a potentially deleterious effect to make a decision on banning porn. We should use The Jesus!”

            It’s not OUR society that you’re responding to. It’s NUMEROUS societies.

            The rest of the world does exist, ya know.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Well, that basically is an age check. People of Arkansas are obviously not old enough to deal with porn when they support a government that produces such stupid laws.

    • Roboticide@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      They already go to the more liberal states for their abortions and their weed. Might as well download some porn while on the dispensary wifi.

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      There are still tons of porn sites that don’t give a fuck about those state laws and don’t comply. No VPN needed, just browse to an unblocked site.

      They can’t force compliance of foreign hosts anyway

      • Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        This is part of a focused effort. Same as the “Gasp, Pornhub is full of revenge porn and CSAM” a few years back. Ars has a good writeup of that, but the gist of it is that it led to basically every credit card company blocking business to Pornhub. Which more or less killed their premium model. And most of the human trafficking horror stories that were dug up were revealed to either be fabrications or be more “general” ones with a lot of the resulting horror going to facebook and twitter.

        Same here. “Age verification” is a pretense to run campaigns to punish and destroy the companies trying to actually make good porn. Because “foreign hosts” only care if they can profit. And if the only people who CAN pay for porn are the ones who want to watch children being violently raped? Well, a lot of republican politicians like Matt “Eww, she turned 13?” Gaetz will still get their rocks off.

    • SomeRandomWords@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 years ago

      My knowledge on this is very limited and I currently lack sources, but I believe the issue that Mindgeek has is not the implementation of age verification, but instead the fact that all of the work is being put on Mindgeek to implement it instead of the states. I believe they’ve been fine in the past implementing age verification if the system already exists and they just have to tie into it.

    • s1ndr0m3@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I’m pretty sure their main issue is that they don’t want to be the ones doing the age verification. Louisiana set up a state run verification system, and pornhub has continued to operate their site in the state. I don’t want porn sites to have my ID info.

    • Thisisforfun@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Didn’t the company also previously claim they were unable to effectively combat child porn?

      Classy lot.

  • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I remember reading about this before. This is so stupid. Making people verify with offical documents… People are going to get their documents stolen so much more now. Nice job Arkansas!

      • Shinhoshi@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        We use driver licenses as a de facto substitute. The Real ID Act effectively makes it a de jure substitute too.

        Americans aren’t required to have one, but the US is very car-dependent, so most people do. You can also get an ID card that does not serve as a driver license from your state if you want to.

        • wearling0600@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          You mean that every American citizen is automatically issued a photocard ID free of charge after they reach a certain age?

          Because that’s how it works in most of Europe for example. Some countries mandate that you must carry it at all times in case the police requires you to identify yourself. You use this card to vote, and you can also travel freely within the EU with it (loads of people don’t even own a passport for this reason).

          • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            You might be right about this one. I myself don’t have a ID-card but use my bank card as identification.

            • nomadjoanne@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              I think we’ve lost thr plot a bit. Yes, the US is one of thr only countries without a national ID, but that’s sort of beside the point.

              Whatever ID you onr is forced to use, national or not, the issue is the state tyrannically policing teens behavior.

        • davepleasebehave@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          The UK does not require you to have any ID. it is not your job to prove who you are. this does lead to a number of interesting problems.

      • doggle@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        The government doesn’t go out of it’s way to give you one, but they usually aren’t difficult to get. Driver’s licenses and passports are commonly used as ID. Many states will also issue a state ID card, though the process for getting one varries by state.

        Driving, or at least being able to drive, is so ubiquitous that nearly everyone over 16 has some kind of driver’s license. That’s especially true of rural areas like Arkansas.

        For these kinds of things “official document” typically means a driver’s license, passport, state ID, military ID, etc. Anything issued by a state or federal government that has your name, date of birth, and photo.

  • Glowstick@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Xhamster is now requiring personal identification for EVERYONE in the whole US, not just in Arkansas. WTF?!