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Certain US states are requiring the porn sites actually do rigorous age verification via scanned documents. I believe PornHub just opted to stay out of those st

Certain US states are requiring the porn sites actually do rigorous age verification via scanned documents. I believe PornHub just opted to stay out of those states entirely hoping that their "reverse boycott" would cause enough of a backlash to get the laws changed. I'm not sure it's working. That said, as a parent to teenagers, I don't know that I believe that age verification is such a terrible idea. The reality is that there's a lot of fucked up porn out there and blocking it effectively across all networks and every device is non-trivial. I understand this is a minority viewpoint on HN. Of course I have absolutely no interest in uploading scans of my drivers license to porn sites so I don't know what the right answer is. I'm sure there's some cryptographic scheme whereby a 3rd party could verify my identity without knowing for what purpose and then the porn sites could validate that verification without disclosing who or what I'm doing. I dunno.

jay-barronville 2y ago
> That said, as a parent to teenagers, I don't know that I believe that age verification is such a terrible idea. The reality is that there's a lot of fucked up porn out there and blocking it effectively across all networks and every device is non-trivial. I understand this is a minority viewpoint on HN. I agree with you. I’m very pro-privacy/anti-surveillance and pro-freedom, so I’m entirely against the invasive ID-based systems, but the problem you highlight is pretty real and has to be addressed somehow, and I’m just not sure what the solution is. As a parent of very young children, I’d hope that we’ve already figured this out by the time my children are teenagers. Also, I doubt your viewpoint is actually a minority viewpoint here—it’s more likely those with your viewpoint just won’t post it here.
- Analemma_ 2y ago
  > I agree with you. I’m very pro-privacy/anti-surveillance and pro-freedom, so I’m entirely against the invasive ID-based systems, but the problem you highlight is pretty real and has to be addressed somehow, and I’m just not sure what the solution is. The solution is client-side filtering/blocking software on the machines you own. And if your response is "but that's hard", that should increase your confidence that server-side filtering and verification are unacceptable. If even tech-savvy people can't get verification working on a local device-- which has the full, correct context who is using it and what should be blocked-- then certainly it's not going to get any better by mandating a solution at scale on the public Internet, where there is much less context about the individual user, credentials can be mocked, proxies can be used, and so on.
mandevil 2y ago
"Hoping that technology can magically solve this without destroying privacy" seems to be where the Supreme Court is heading, at least that was what observers thought after watching the Court's hearing on the Texas bill a few weeks ago. Which is one reason that the EFF is trying to lay down their argument that the technology won't work.
twiclo 2y ago
"Of course I have absolutely no interest in uploading scans of my drivers license to porn sites" Would you be okay uploading your ID to online gambling sites?
LorenPechtel 2y ago
It's much better to "block" it by educating your kids rather than pretending it doesn't exist.

jay-barronville 2y ago

> That said, as a parent to teenagers, I don't know that I believe that age verification is such a terrible idea. The reality is that there's a lot of fucked up porn out there and blocking it effectively across all networks and every device is non-trivial. I understand this is a minority viewpoint on HN. I agree with you. I’m very pro-privacy/anti-surveillance and pro-freedom, so I’m entirely against the invasive ID-based systems, but the problem you highlight is pretty real and has to be addressed somehow, and I’m just not sure what the solution is. As a parent of very young children, I’d hope that we’ve already figured this out by the time my children are teenagers. Also, I doubt your viewpoint is actually a minority viewpoint here—it’s more likely those with your viewpoint just won’t post it here.

Analemma_ 2y ago
> I agree with you. I’m very pro-privacy/anti-surveillance and pro-freedom, so I’m entirely against the invasive ID-based systems, but the problem you highlight is pretty real and has to be addressed somehow, and I’m just not sure what the solution is. The solution is client-side filtering/blocking software on the machines you own. And if your response is "but that's hard", that should increase your confidence that server-side filtering and verification are unacceptable. If even tech-savvy people can't get verification working on a local device-- which has the full, correct context who is using it and what should be blocked-- then certainly it's not going to get any better by mandating a solution at scale on the public Internet, where there is much less context about the individual user, credentials can be mocked, proxies can be used, and so on.

mandevil 2y ago

"Hoping that technology can magically solve this without destroying privacy" seems to be where the Supreme Court is heading, at least that was what observers thought after watching the Court's hearing on the Texas bill a few weeks ago. Which is one reason that the EFF is trying to lay down their argument that the technology won't work.

twiclo 2y ago

"Of course I have absolutely no interest in uploading scans of my drivers license to porn sites" Would you be okay uploading your ID to online gambling sites?

LorenPechtel 2y ago

It's much better to "block" it by educating your kids rather than pretending it doesn't exist.