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Pornhub Blocks All of Utah From Its Site 219

Posted by msmash from the tough-luck dept.
In response to a new law that requires porn sites to verify users' ages, Pornhub has completely disabled its websites for people located in Utah. From a report: As of today, anyone accessing Pornhub from a Utah-based IP address doesn't see the Pornhub homepage, but instead is met with a video of Cherie DeVille, adult performer and member of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, explaining that they won't be able to visit the site. "As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website," DeVille says. "While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk."
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Pornhub Blocks All of Utah From Its Site More

Pornhub Blocks All of Utah From Its Site

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  • working as intended (Score:5, Insightful)

    by The-Ixian ( 168184 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:24AM (#63491352)

    I would say that this is exactly what Utah officials envisioned when they passed this legislation.

    I do wonder what the Internet will look like in 100 years. Will it all be locked down and federated? Seems like the direction things are going.

    • Re:working as intended (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ed Tice ( 3732157 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:28AM (#63491360)
      I doubt they envisioned anything. The just found that the issue polled well. If this spread to other states, invest in VPN providers.

      • Kids aren't going to get VPN providers (Score:5, Insightful)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:46AM (#63491416)
        but they will go to increasingly dodgy websites for their porn, leaving them vulnerable to all sorts of bad things.

        But that's a pretty standard right wing thing. You decide something is immoral, force your will on other people (all while talking up a "small gov't" game) and then when your bad policy causes untold harm you blame the victim. That's right wing politics 101.

      • republicans as always (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        are obsessed with other peoples' genitals

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 )

        While it is true that elected officials do things to earn voter support, it is also true that they have political agendas of their own to push.

        In the case of Utah, many of the elected officials are likely to be religious and puritanical, so it is believable that at least some of them would have a desire to legislate morality like this.

        There is also the issue of America's severely declining birthrate, which has many people alarmed. One way people are reacting is by trying to take away any sexual outlet that

      • Re:working as intended (Score:5, Informative)

        by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:56AM (#63491450)

        Well, here's what they find important. https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.... [cbsnewsstatic.com]

        Nothing about wages, healthcare, the economy, world affairs. Just jesus, guns, and Trump.

        • Well, here's what they find important. https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.... [cbsnewsstatic.com]

          Nothing about wages, healthcare, the economy, world affairs. Just jesus, guns, and Trump.

          Which is ironic as I'm pretty sure Jesus wouldn't support Trump or the US gun culture / obsession / fetish. WWJD? Not those.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        I doubt they envisioned anything. The just found that the issue polled well. If this spread to other states, invest in VPN providers.

        Yep. "Casual evil" done for a minor personal gain. Leave it to the deeply religious to do that on this scale.

      • VPN providers are almost all owned by the FBI/CIA so they may not make good investments.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by znrt ( 2424692 )

        this is exactly the reaction i recently proposed in a similar situation for arkansas
        (https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=22836494&cid=63434112#comments)

        it's hilarious that in this case it wasn't facebook or twatter, but no other than pornhub doing the right thing. fuck yeah, that's how you deal with self-righteous intolerant and ignorant morons, just where it hurts: sorry, no porn for them anymore, enjoy your own medicine! :'D it's just comedy gold!

    • the baby boomers will "age out" of voting and Gen Z will age into it.

      When that happens a lot of this nonsense will go away, being quietly repealed in a rider to a budget bill or something.

      Assuming we're still a democracy that is. I've got my doubts. There's definitely a concerted effort on the part of folks who's grip on power is slipping to do away with this troublesome "democracy" stuff.

      • the baby boomers will "age out" of voting and Gen Z will age into it.
        When that happens a lot of this nonsense will go away, being quietly repealed in a rider to a budget bill or something.

        What will be really interesting is to see if the distribution of political beliefs in each generation remain static as they age. I have my doubts. The current boomers likely did not act the same way or believe in the same things when they were teenagers. Values tend to change as life situations change and life experiences accumulate. I would be surprised if the current Gen Z doesn't start to acquire boomer views as they approach boomer age.

        • Only if the boomers let go of all the wealth and allow it to pass to later Gens

        • Does not appear to be happening to the same extent. Current theory is that Boomers became more conservative as they became more wealthy and wanted that status-quo to be preserved. That's not happening to the same extent with subsequent generations, so they are becoming more radical as they age if anything. Fun times ahead.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          I would tend to agree that people tend to become more conservative as they age. I see it happening to myself. The problem I see with your theory, however, is that the "conservative values" that the current Boomers migrated to as they aged doesn't exist any more. Small-government fiscal conservatives are gone. Unless the GOP can figure out how to get away from their current values, and do it fast, they aren't going to get the popular vote of any demographic currently under 45 years of age. (Of course t

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The boomers mostly did very well when they were young. There were lots of opportunities for them, cheap fossil fuels, cheap housing, fantastic pensions. Gen Z doesn't have access to those things, and they have to deal with climate change too.

          Boomers love to blame Gen Z for being lazy and wasting their money on avocado toast, but the reality is that they created that situation. They are conservative leaning because they think that if Gen Z was just more like they were at that age, things would be better. It

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GlennC ( 96879 )

        Assuming we're still a democracy that is. I've got my doubts.

        I have little doubt.

        We are no longer a democracy but an oligarchy with a thin crumbling veneer of choice that is noticeably failing to pacify the consumers.

        We're well on our way to dictatorship. The only uncertainty is whether the overseers will be wearing red or blue.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jmccue ( 834797 )
      If you ask me, you will probably see the law adjusted. I would not be surprised if most of these Utah male pols had accounts. Seems people obsessed with eliminating "harmful" thinks are the ones who use ot the most. :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dstwins ( 167742 )
      I really don't get the US..

      Show a tit or two (or more) people fucking and its the end of the world (never mind that in almost 99% of the cases, that's how many of us GOT HERE!!!.. And yet. a person mowing down people faster than a fat man with a free ticket to the Cinnabun factory and that's ok..

      Violence.. no problem
      Drugs.. umm.. well as long as there is some redemption or upside in the end, its ok.
      Cursing.. Fuck yeah!!!

      But sex?... (something that is in our VERY DNA and quite literally EVERYTHING on the pla

  • Open a VPN service in Utah and link to it.

    • I can see people going a step ahead of this, and creating remote machines (think Windows 365) one can RDP into for pr0n viewing. This way, all the bookmarks, history, cookies, and other stuff are stored offsite, and the Internet connection for browsing stuff is coming from the service provider. The only thing that can be snooped on is the remote desktop connection, which would be encrypted, point to point, no VPN needed.

      Of course, this means trusting the service provider, and it is a lot more work for the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cstacy ( 534252 )

        I can see people going a step ahead of this, and creating remote machines (think Windows 365) one can RDP into for pr0n viewing. This way, all the bookmarks, history, cookies, and other stuff are stored offsite, and the Internet connection for browsing stuff is coming from the service provider. The only thing that can be snooped on is the remote desktop connection, which would be encrypted, point to point, no VPN needed.

        Looking to see if mypornstash.com is already registered or not. Ka-Ching!

  • Legislating Morality (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Midnight_Falcon ( 2432802 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:38AM (#63491382)
    Leave it to a state legislature run by Mormons to make such a decision. These are the same people who brought you Brigham Young's many wives, so many they needed a larger bed and house to fit them all. Meanwhile he sent Mormons to their death building the transcontinental railroad to free more women for poly marriage. Let's not forget how much he hated the "Mark of Cain", meaning being black is a punishment from God.

    Now, the backwards religion of Utah that clings to beliefs of an 19th century Charlatan thinks blocking porn is going to somehow help society. It won't, but it scores points with the (irrational) religious base.

    • Fun fact about the Morman church (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:49AM (#63491422)
      there's very strong evidence they rose to prominence running whore houses. Entire towns of the things. Women would be offered salvation in exchange for being prostitutes. One of their early leaders just happened to be a gynecologists. If you want to run a whore house pre birth control you need somebody who can do abortions. Lots of them.

      Look it up, I'm sure the church would like to forget their early days, but it's pretty well documented.
      • Totally agreed, they justify changing things by "revelation," which basically means "Because the head of the church (Prophet) said so." These decisions are largely made to help the image of the church and to gain new members, not to advance any theologically consistent philosophy. For example, the theology of the "Mark of Cain" was "revealed" to be untrue in 1978, when it became politically untenable to continue to discriminate against blacks in the face of federally-enforceable civil rights.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cstacy ( 534252 )

          Totally agreed, they justify changing things by "revelation," which basically means "Because the head of the church (Prophet) said so."

          As opposed to all other religions?

          • Re:Fun fact about the Morman church (Score:4, Interesting)

            by Midnight_Falcon ( 2432802 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @02:30PM (#63492020)
            Many other major religions differ actually. Rolling back century (or longer) old dogma is a complicated process elsewhere:
            Catholicism: While the pope is 'infaliable,' de facto a Vatican Council is required for major changes. For example, when the mass stopped being said in Latin, this required a Vatican Council with all of the Cardinals etc in attendance to make the decision.
            Islam: Imams or Ayatollahs etc may control small groups of Muslims, but due to fragmentation no decree from one person has universal impact on Islamic people. Even then, centuries of Islamic jurisprudence and scholars make it so a leader making vast changes to the rules of the faith can be in a tenuous position, or replaced etc.
            Judaism: . While Rabbis may control closely small following, such as individual Hassidic communities (e.g. Satmar, Lubavitch/Chabad), they only speak for a small minority or community. In reform Judaism interpretation of what rules to follow is left to the individual, and individual rabbis (basically governing a parish, not millions and millions like the Mormons) make determinations for Orthodox communities.

            For all these religions, walking back old dogma would be very difficult -- we see this in how Pope Francis has been unable to allow women to be ordained due to opposition of the Cardinals.

            Mormonism is one of the few religions beyond the status of a small cult or sub group (with 17 million+ professed members) where the leader has dictator-like control over the organization. Other religions would view assuming the title of Prophet for a church head would be blasphemy. In addition, they maintain control of the government of the State of Utah -- no other individual religion has control of a US state like they do, due to the fragmentation of other "Christian" churches.

            So, while leaders of other religions have control, the scope of control in the Mormon church given to one individual is quite remarkable.

            • You do understand, I hope, that the Pope is only considered to be infallible when he's speaking ex cathedra on matters of Church doctrine because God wouldn't allow him to declare error as doctrine. (No, I'm not catholic, but I've taken the time to learn a bit about them so that I can understand what they're saying.)

      • And don't forget the church hit squads.

        Really, the more you dig into Mormonism, the more it's like some cynical, dystopian cyperpunk cult.

      • Interesting, but a quick google suggests that early mormonism was extremely anti-prostitution, and instead "prostitution" was used against mormonism to criticize polygamy. Any sources?

  • Utah has a Porn History (Score:5, Informative)

    by chill ( 34294 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:39AM (#63491386) Journal

    Utah has found themselves on the top of "State with most porn consumed" a couple [ksl.com] of times [nytimes.com] in the past.

  • As someone who used to run porn sites (Score:5, Interesting)

    by slaker ( 53818 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:40AM (#63491396)

    As someone who use to run porn sites, my metrics always showed that the most active users in the USA tended to be from either gulf coast states or Utah. Maybe the majority of people in those places are prudes, but everywhere there are a bunch of prudes, there's a greater than normal demand for gaping buttholes, muscle twinks and teenage MILFs.

    Pornhub and its corporate parents are deeply awful companies. They don't do anything right by performers and at the lowest levels of camgirls, it's much closer to sex trafficking than anything else. But on the other hand, it IS well moderated and responsive to legal matters. I understand that the people who are seeking these restrictions want to legislate porn out of existence and that All Porn Is The Enemy, but if these people could actually read without moving their lips, they'd realize that they'll get farther with restrictions by working with major players in adult entertainment than trying to prevent access entirely.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by _merlin ( 160982 )

      I understand that the people who are seeking these restrictions want to legislate porn out of existence and that All Porn Is The Enemy

      APITE is an OK acronym, but it would be better if you could think of a couple more words to add to make it APETITE.

      • APETITTY? TITEAPE? Regardless, I don't think involving our genetic cousins is going to poll well. Then again, it IS Mormon country, and they don't accept evolution anyway, so maybe it's fine.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Whibla ( 210729 )

        ...it would be better if you could think of a couple more words to add to make it APETITE.

        We only have to hark back to that fateful Superbowl a few years back to recognise what 'terrifies' some Americans:

        All Porn, especially titties, is the enemy

        APETITE.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        All Porn Except This is the Enemy?

  • iving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk."

    This is about allowing people to browse the content without having an account. That's where they get most of their money. Doing basic KYC checks on registered users is easily done; most of the major crypto exchanges have semi-automated the process of checking IDs and wouldn't mind sharing the tech with them.

    There's no requirem

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Exactly this. Did see the video but I would love to hear their explanation about how it "puts children at risk."

      I do appreciate the privacy challenges around these age verification laws; but I fail to see how it puts anyone 'at risk' of anything other than perhaps not being able to watch free porn.

      Its just sour grapes.

      • Re:Completely dishonest take (Score:5, Insightful)

        by tomz16 ( 992375 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @12:00PM (#63491458)

        Exactly this. Did see the video but I would love to hear their explanation about how it "puts children at risk."

        Because humans (including teenagers) are not going to stop desiring porn just because their state legislature said so... Many/most are simply going to turn to progressively shadier sources (i.e. those sites ignoring Utah law) to get whatever they can. Many will get scammed, infected with malware, blackmailed, get their identity stolen, etc. along the way.

        • Re:Completely dishonest take (Score:5, Insightful)

          by pauljlucas ( 529435 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @01:48PM (#63491826) Homepage Journal

          Many will get scammed, infected with malware, blackmailed, get their identity stolen, etc. along the way.

          Victim-blaming is a hallmark of the conservative mindset. You're poor? It's because you don't work hard enough or make poor life choices. Teenage daughter pregnant? She shouldn't have had sex; you should have been better parents. Got your identity stolen? You shouldn't have been visiting such sites. Additionally, the conservative mindset generally thinks the victims deserve it because they weren't virtuous enough.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Any time you reveal your identity online, it can end up anywhere, most notably in the hands of blackmailers, or alternately in the hands of the govt, who may find you "interesting." 99.999% of people who view porn online do not want either of those parties to know about it.

      However, it is entirely likely that local police do sniff either before or at the isp, so mind your manners.

    • You couldn't have accidentally chosen a better example to disprove your point. Coinbase is doing KYC, yes, and then turning around and selling that KYC data without respecting customer opt out. Porn consumers are even more shy than crypto people -- you think people are going to voluntarily put info in that could be leaked or sold? This law isn't about protecting children, it's about harming the adult industry by instituting an unreasonable requirement that companies who comply will have disasterous resul

  • Fun Fact (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Smonster ( 2884001 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:50AM (#63491424)
    Sunday church going Utah has the highest percentage of online paid porn accounts in the nation. I always though it was weird Utahans insist on paying for their sinful smut. My guess is as a result of Pornhub's decision more Utahans will just sign up for paid services. Which as they require a credit card, already track users.

    • It's not just Mormons. If you look across all religions, the stricter the religion, the most randy and pervert its members are. I know that because I grew up in a strict catholic environment (and in Utah no less) and I've never seen a more bizarro sex-obsessed bunch.

      My personal theory is that the more taboo a community a places on something, the more that something ends up being the focus of unhealthy attention from the frustrated members of that community. When sex doesn't carry such an emotional charge, p

      • Re:Fun Fact (Score:5, Interesting)

        by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @03:23PM (#63492184)

        It is quite standard and quite well documented. After all, sex drive is one of the most irresistible biological drives and literally needed for species survival.

        And it is worse: Outlaw porn, get a lot more rape and sexual child abuse because some people will be unable to control themselves without that outlet and go into more and more deranged fantasies. Just look at all those priests raping children, because that was the only access they could get and they could just not help themselves. (Assuming here that the typical priest is not just plain evil. That may be open for debate.)

        Some references. There is a ton more out there. The 2nd one shows the effect in the Czech Republic is not limited to less children getting raped, even if the first does refrain from stating that outright. Also fascinating, apparently rapists consume significantly _less_ porn than average men:

        1. https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com]
        2. https://www.psychologytoday.co... [psychologytoday.com]

        Of course, the fanatics cannot have that, and hence finance a lot of "research" that is supposed to show that porn availability increases sexual assault, even when that has never been observed.

        A reference explaining one of the usual tricks used to skew reality:
        3. https://www.psychologytoday.co... [psychologytoday.com]

        tl,dr: All men consume porn. It does not make then rapists. But the less porn consumed and the more difficult the porn access, the higher the probability they become rapists. Not politically correct, but statistically relevant and hence quite real.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Better than starting to rape their women. Non-availability of porn drives rape numbers up significantly. Yes, that is incompatible with feminist ideology, and hence rarely reported. It has been documented often enough to be reliable though. Same with prostitution.

      Deny people one outlet and they will find another one and prayer will not do it for some people.

      That said, I bet there are quite a few camouflaged prostitutes in Utah that make excellent business while looking rather plain and probably being older.

  • Anyway...
  • I dated a Mormon woman long ago. She put Catholic girls to shame. I often thought Utah must be a great place to live.
  • Maybe the people of Utah will think better of their theocracy and do something about it. Probbly not, though.

  • Pornhub may know some IPs that have a high probability of being served from Utah. But public IP blocks are sold and moving outside of the regions they were originally assigned.

    If I were a Utah ISP I wouldn't be helping Pornhub or anyone else block my customers.

    • But are you a Utah ISP? Right, didn't think so.

    • There are commercial IP-based geolocation services and have been for decades. You don't look to ARIN. You underestimate the number and breadth of data brokers that exist out there.

  • That's the right response. Companies should have done the same thing with EU countries in response to GDPR rather than bothering everyone with cookie acceptance popups. Let the folks living under the regimes feel the pain of over-regulation and maybe the authoritarians will reel it back in.

  • Good for VPN providers (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @02:56PM (#63492110)

    Those that posture and virtue-signal hardest are typically the worst in actual reality.

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