No more Pornhub? That will depend on what happens with a Senate bill::A Senate bill might cause the owners of Pornhub to block access to the site in Canada, its owners say.

  • aelwero@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    options include the establishment of a digital ID system or services that can estimate an individual’s age based on a visual scan of their face.

    Oh yeah… I’m sure that won’t cause any unintended issues at all…

  • Luftruessel@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    As some wise man once said:

    I’m fairly sure if they took porn off the internet, there’d only be one website left, and it’d be called “Bring back the porn!”

  • boatsnhos931@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Let’s start blocking websites in our country because it might be inappropriate for the children. Yes I understand that it is very easy to get around but ask yourself how many pornographic websites are out there…Who is going to decide which sites or content is ok? AI? LOL

  • RedFox@infosec.pub
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    8 months ago

    I enjoy these threads. I have noticed people really hate two themes here: (1) internet censorship, and (2) people screwing with their porn :)

    (I’m not a pornhub user, nor advocating for the internet censorship nonsense, just a devils advocate question for fun)

    Pretend for a second it was reasonably feasible to enforce this, so I’m asking you to forget how the internet/VPNs/tons of options work :)

    • If a site like pornhub ‘PROMISED’ to not log any user data under threat of death, but all they did was run a query against some government database that verifies age >= 18, would you do it?

    • Also, the government database ‘PROMISES’ to not log the source of the age only verification queries, would you do it?

    So, if you say no, is it because you believe there’s no way each of those organizations would keep their word or something else?

    • Atlas_@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I don’t trust them first off, but even trusting them to not voluntarily disclose it doesn’t mean they won’t have a security breach and disclose it involuntarily. Also, the database has to be created and queried somehow; some employees and govt workers will be able to see what queries are made. Even trusting the business and the govt and the security of both, I don’t trust those random people having access to that info.

      What evidence do you have to give the website that you are person X that they’re running the database query against? If that’s an ID there’s going to be some available online, or a kid can just sneak it from the parent. Everything I’ve heard proposed for the identification strategy is either grossly invasive or quite easy to step over.

      I don’t believe that Canada will actually enforce this across all websites. If they do it on only the large/main ones, it makes it harder for kids to access the relatively safe and legal porn hosted on sites making effort to follow the law, and pushes them towards sites that aren’t making such an effort and therefore probably have more objectionable content.

      • w2tpmf@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        To put a positive spin on that…

        If they enforced it on the big sites it would push many users (not just the kids) to other sites.

        This could work toward breaking up the monopoly held by just a few big porn companies, and could be a good thing for the consumers.

        Not all smaller sites are inherently nefarious. Maybe we’ll see some competition start to rise. And maybe that competition won’t be entirely full of “I fucked my sister/brother and/or my mom/dad” type porn like all the big companies keep cranking out.

      • RedFox@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        Yeah, I agree with not liking people having that info, but ISPs do, unless you use VPN, and then the VPN does.

        We just usually don’t hear of that getting leaked from VPN providers since their reputation is on the line.

        Data breach would also be a bummer. If a criminal group takes the time to breach a government database, I think it would be wasted effort to try black mailing people over porn access. Unless you’re a priest. Then uh oh.

        The way you get positive ID that can’t be skirted is with government issues ID card with PKI. All US federal employees have ID cards issued by their department. It has certs that let you sign into computers, sign documents, etc. It’s 2FA, card and a PIN.

        Every driver in the US is supposed to have a driver’s license. They just need to add PKI to them. Then you sign into a website with your DL and PIN. You’d never need a million accounts anymore. Caveats apply.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A House of Commons committee is set to study legislation proposed by Independent Sen. Julie Miville-Dechêne that would require Canadians to verify their age to access porn online.

    The bill outlines a range of concerns about minors having access to sexually explicit material, including the potential to develop a pornography addiction and the reinforcement of harmful gender stereotypes.

    Such suggestions have prompted widespread concern from privacy experts about the overarching impacts, from the risks associated with asking Canadians to share personal information with an external provider to the use of measures such as facial recognition technology.

    In 2023, his firm acquired ownership of Pornhub’s parent company as it was reeling from reports that exploded in late 2020 about the site being home to countless examples of child sexual abuse material and other images and videos uploaded without an individual’s consent.

    Tories have routinely raised concerns about children’s access to sexually explicit material, while also decrying  government efforts to regulate social media companies as censorship.

    Ontario MP Karen Vecchio, who sponsored the bill in the House, told MPs back in December that she agreed personal information shouldn’t be collected by individual sites.


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