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The Internet Network

Porn VPN Searches Soar In Utah Amid Age Verification Bill (techradar.com) 99

Posted by BeauHD from the cause-and-effect dept.
Internet users are turning to VPN services as a means to circumvent Utah's new law requiring porn sites to verify users' ages. The spike in VPN searches appears to be directly related to Pornhub's decision on Tuesday to completely disable its websites for people living in the state. TechRadar reports: Google searches for virtual private networks (VPNs) have been skyrocketing since, with a peak registered on May 3, the day the new law came into force. By downloading a VPN service, pornography fans will be able to keep accessing Pornhub and similar sites with ease. That's because a virtual private network is security software able to spoof users' IP address (digital location and device identifier). Hence a surge of interest in VPNs across Utah as people will simply need to connect to a server located in a US state or foreign country where the restriction isn't yet enforced.

"Utah's age-verification law shows a worrying trend to further restrict digital freedoms and disregard data privacy across the US," said a spokesperson of secure VPN provider Private Internet Access (PIA). "Private Internet Access is a long-time advocate of greater digital privacy, and we urge lawmakers to consider other ways of protecting children online, including education, guidance from parents, and open conversations about safe internet usage, rather than relying on increasingly intrusive digital regulations which disregard people's privacy and online freedom." You can see the spike in "virtual private network" searches via Google Trends.

"Search queries for VPN were at peak popularity in Utah just before 4 a.m. EST Tuesday, according to the trends data," notes Newsweek. "Other related queries in the past week include searches for VPN extensions like Hola and Fox Speed."
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Porn VPN Searches Soar In Utah Amid Age Verification Bill More

Porn VPN Searches Soar In Utah Amid Age Verification Bill

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  • What did they think was going to happen? (Score:3)

    by metrix007 ( 200091 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @08:36PM (#63498238)

    People want porn and a state government lacks the controls to prevent people from accessing it.

    Although I sure look forward to watching them try.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Getting blue balled to own the libs.

    • Re:What did they think was going to happen? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Friday May 05, 2023 @12:38AM (#63498456) Homepage

      If they block nice, safe, regulated Pornhub then people will go to the dodgy porn sites full of underage, unwilling girls.

      • Maybe if they block the 10 billion other mainstream clearnet porn sites. And Twitter. And Reddit. And... Unless by "full of" you mean like PornHub pre-purge, where it was a handful of videos out of millions involving teenagers not obviously underage or being forced.
        Or do you browse for your porn on Tor hidden services? In that case it's no accident, you went looking for CP.

      • Re:What did they think was going to happen? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Friday May 05, 2023 @05:12AM (#63498712)

        If they block nice, safe, regulated Pornhub then people will go to the dodgy porn sites full of underage, unwilling girls.

        No need to go that far. Just go to Arizona where Mormons are free to rape children all they want and don't have to report it [go.com].

        • No need to go that far. Just go to Arizona where Mormons are free to rape children all they want and don't have to report it [go.com].

          Wow, good work going off on a tangent and smearing all Mormons with an outright lie. The case in Arizona refers to the Arizona Supreme Court upholding the legal confidentiality of confessions to clergy of all faiths. There are those who want to remove this confidentiality protection, but your statement is an outright provocative lie.

        • If they block nice, safe, regulated Pornhub then people will go to the dodgy porn sites full of underage, unwilling girls.

          No need to go that far. Just go to Arizona where Mormons are free to rape children all they want and don't have to report it [go.com].

          That spin is misleading. Spousal and child abuse are grounds for excommunication (revoking membership in the church). The church repeatedly speaks out against these atrocious acts. The Arizona court case upholds that clergy cannot break the sanctity of the confessional. Due to having presence in multiple jurisdictions with different laws, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains a help hotline so bishops (lay members serve as bishop 3-5 years) may know how to proceed legally. If it is disco

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      My comment on the subject was ridiculed because most people obviously obey laws and kids are not going to make the effort.

      The fact is that adults are not going give up privilege just because it is outlawed, and kid have nothing but time..if parents content blockers donâ(TM)t work, then why would this law?

    • What did they think was going to happen?

      Exactly what did happen. People flocking to VPN companies, so stock prices appreciate and legislators can cash out early retirement somewhere other than Utah. The system is working as designed :)

    • Re:What did they think was going to happen? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Friday May 05, 2023 @07:45AM (#63498986)

      Not just that, but people in Utah want porn more than most others. There was an obscenity case there in the 1980s? 1990s? where some overzealous DA decided to prosecute a mom&pop video store for obscenity in order to make a name for himself. The test for obscenity was the generic "community standards" one, so the defence attorney requested data of adult cable TV viewing in Utah. Turns out they consumed a fuckton of porn, more so than most other parts of the US, and so the "community standard" was that plenty of porn was fine.

      I read about this at the time and it was ages ago, if someone has a concrete reference or more detail please post it.

  • I'm shocked! (Score:4, Funny)

    by uncqual ( 836337 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @08:39PM (#63498246)

    I'm shocked, shocked, to find that people will circumvent regulations via technology.

  • All those poor Mormons... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Excelcia ( 906188 ) <slashdot@excelcia.ca> on Thursday May 04, 2023 @08:43PM (#63498252) Homepage Journal

    ... who have now just lost their last avenue of ever seeing someone else naked.

    • Re:All those poor Mormons... (Score:4, Funny)

      by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @08:45PM (#63498258)

      ... who have now just lost their last avenue of ever seeing someone else naked.

      Thank god this is slashdot where no one knows what that’s like.

    • Many years ago some friends and I drove across the United States from New York to LA over several months.
      We had no intention of staying in Salt Lake City for any length of time and I can't really remember how we wound up there in the first place but we were blown away by how much Mormons drink.
      We expected it to be pretty boring, but we met a couple of guys who introduced us to some girls who turned out to be extremely affectionate. At one point we were drinking in some sort of illegal after-hours joint

      • Wow, I'm shocked! I mean there are NO other religions that have rules that people circumvent:

        Jewish folks that use electricity and cars on the sabbath
        Mormons that drink caffeine
        Amish that have computers
        Muslim women that don't cover their entire body
        Catholics that use contraceptives
        Seventh-day Adventists that smoke, drink, or dance

        Every religion has guidelines and prohibitions that were set down many years or centuries ago that people have since disregarded. Dietary rules are one of the most common that pe

        • I've yet to meet a person that defines themself as a perfect example of all their religion's tenets

          Difficult when all the big ones have inherently contradictory tenets. Religion is mostly an excuse to behave however someone wanted to behave to begin with.

        • Re:All those poor Mormons... (Score:5, Informative)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot@worf.ERDOSnet minus math_god> on Friday May 05, 2023 @01:30PM (#63499951)

          Amish that have computers

          Amish doesn't mean luddite. The Amish are just a religion that generally tends to value hard work and practicality over well, excess. They are also a practical people in that they are economically self-sustaining.

          That said, they do have computers, some that can access the Internet, even, because they realize that the world doesn't revolve around them and to participate in a modern economy, they need to get online. That's also why they had telephones. Again, work related.

          So an Amish computer isn't like a regular PC you and I would use - while they do run Linux in many circumstances, it's to do business work. So they will have LibreOffice to create documents (yes, they have printers), and a web browser to maintain their website selling their goods. They also have spreadsheets to maintain the books so they can lawfully report their taxes.

          But the computers cannot play games at all - part of the reason why they run Linux after all. The computer is for business.

          Also, Amish aren't uniform in believes - each community has their own set of beliefs. So there will be communities where computers of any kind are forbidden, while others may allow them, but they cannot access the Internet (and thus the updates and orders are handled some other way, likely through a company that interfaces them to the world of e-commerce). And yet others still have Internet access, but again, no games. Just pure business.

          They don't shun technology necessarily - they do, after all, need to eat, and need to participate in the modern economy and the wider world around them. They just shun technology that leads to idleness - hence why no games on the computers, and why it's mostly manual labor (they do use tools and machinery because manual labor only goes so far).

          Visiting various Amish communities shows them to occupy a sprectrum of lifestyles, so if you wanted to abandon it all, you can get a sneak preview of what life is like by observing them. And yes, they do know there's a wider world out there, and that's why the communities stay small - their kids are kicked out for a few years in order for them to understand the greater world and to be tempted - if they wish to return, they do so knowing full well what's out there and what they're giving up.

          Anyhow, the Amish owning computers is far less a cheat than some of the others on your list. Plus, in this world, it's an economic necessity. They aren't ignorant of technology, nor do they completely shun it, but only employ as necessary - if a human can do it, then why should they be replaced by a machine? (Yes, that also means in communities with electricity, that electricity is often generated by hand and not the grid).

          Sabbath mode, for instance, is a huge cheat relying on all sorts of technicalities (you can't "push buttons" on the Sabbath, so ovens and such allow you to set their start and end times the day before, or elevators that just do nothing but go up and down stopping on every floor).

          As for the rest - a lot of it is due to interpretation. Muslim women covering up is a pure interpretation of the Qu'ran, which is why in conservative Islamic states, they are covered head to toe, but in much more liberal states (or non-Islamic states), they are just clothed. I believe the guideline is that women are "modest" in appearance, the meaning of modesty being well, varying based on local standards. Basically in the West, being clothed normally - we don't find anything overly sexual about the face, and since women are independent here, it helps a lot with identifying who's who. But if they want to cover up, hey, that's their right too as well (ain't freedom grand?).

      • Many years ago some friends and I drove across the United States from New York to LA over several months.

        We had no intention of staying in Salt Lake City for any length of time and I can't really remember how we wound up there in the first place but we were blown away by how much Mormons drink.

        In reality, only 60-62% of the state is Mormon. Mormons are a minority in 5 counties, including Salt Lake County. Alcohol is still very much against the Word of Wisdom (consuming alcohol would prevent members of the church from entering the temple, or for non-members being baptized). What you found was that despite the heavy Mormon influence SLC still has night life for people not of that faith.

    • It's been a long time since Utah was populated mostly by Mormons.

      • It's been a long time since Utah was populated mostly by Mormons.

        According to wikipedia, at the last count Utah is 55% Mormon.

        • No one's more Mormon than Mormons in the morning.

          Miraculously, more morose Mormons mourn Mammon.

        • It's been a long time since Utah was populated mostly by Mormons.

          According to wikipedia, at the last count Utah is 55% Mormon.

          The Salt Lake Tribune ran a piece a few years back when Salt Lake became the fifth county in the state where Mormons are in the minority. Members of record make up 60-65% of Utahns. Note that "member of record" includes those who are no longer active, but haven't asked to remove their membership record, so the percent of active Mormons is lower.

    • Wine, women and song. The three evils.

    • Don't be silly. Obviously, the age verification filters are overly broad & devout, upstanding members of the Mormon community are unable to access their favourite polyamorous magic underpants "documentaries."

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      ...someone who hasn't squeezed 5 beef-fed kids thru their body

  • Didn't Thomas Jefferson say, "The government you elect is the government you deserve."? The people in Utah elected the representatives who passed this bill/law they're trying to circumvent, they can elect different ones or move to less repressive (probably Blue/er) states.

    • Re:Careful who you vote for. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @10:37PM (#63498376) Homepage

      Didn't Thomas Jefferson say, "The government you elect is the government you deserve."?

      To be fair, both parties are like subscribing to a cable package where you get maybe 2 or 3 things you wanted, and the remainder is a bunch of insufferable bullshit.

    • Well, the government passed restrictions for age verification - which may be considered reasonable for porn sites. There was no requirement to pull out completely out of Utah.

      • Well, the government passed restrictions for age verification - which may be considered reasonable for porn sites. There was no requirement to pull out completely out of Utah.

        Well, if what the government is asking for is either impossible to do or prohibitively expensive then it's likely easier to leave altogether.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by znrt ( 2424692 )

        Well, the government passed restrictions for age verification - which may be considered reasonable for porn sites. There was no requirement to pull out completely out of Utah.

        no, the actual requirement was a way, way more unreasonable than that. pulling out was actually the simple, rational and sane solution.

        when you have set up a business that is working fine "as is" in most of the world you probably don't want it to undergo radical and costly changes that no one really wants just to please the demagogic discourse in some irrelevant backwater area governed by morons. you can safely just move out of that problematic area, specially if you realize that even there most of the audi

  • Ah, the old game of Whac-A... (Score:3)

    by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @09:29PM (#63498302)

    ...well, you get my point.

  • Can cause you to type wrong passwords.
    And then you are in Trouble.

  • next up: Customers (Score:3)

    by cstacy ( 534252 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @11:45PM (#63498426)

    Next the state of Utah will go after the customers who are using VPNs to circumvent the law.

    Is there traffic that looks like you might be using a VPN? Encryption? That's reasonable suspicion to get a warrant to look for the VPN software on your computer. They will come to your door with a warrant to search and seize your electronic devices. They will take them and find your dirty, dirty, little secrets. And anything else that's interesting on your computers and tablets and phones. All archived on the disk image copy that is evidence against you, retained forever.

    In addition to whatever fines you'll get, in your very public trial, there will also be felony charges for your conspiracy and other crimes related to trying to get around the law with your VPN and encryption.

    • Next the state of Utah will go after the customers who are using VPNs to circumvent the law.

      Were you being sarcastic? With all the work-from-home going on, there is a lot of VPN usage, and the whole point of a VPN is to mask the traffic, so usage of a VPN provides no reasonable suspicion.

      Of course, with the current Supreme Court, ideology trumps facts and prior decisions, so the fact that VPNs are overwhelmingly used for business might not be a reason to treat VPNs as suspicious.

  • Virtual Virtuous Network (VVN) (Score:3)

    by cstacy ( 534252 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @11:59PM (#63498432)

    If you want to be a respectable God-fearing citizen in Utah, you need the new VVN service.

    It's like a VPN, but rather than hiding your porn surfing, it provides content filtering. You set up your home Internet so that everything always and provably goes through the VVN. There are several VVN services, which are effectively like ISPs, that are certified by the Church. Mainly for Mormons, but perhaps some for Catholics, too.

    The customer lists for the VVNs are totally public and up to date. This way, everyone can see who is NOT using the service.

    The best part is that this requires no laws to be passed. It's just a good old capitalist service that you can opt into if you feel like. It's freedom and American Pie. (Well, American Pie is probably censored but you know what I mean.)

    Woe be unto you sinners who are not signed up. Your reputation will precede you in the community, and while that burns and you are put out, the Devil is getting your spot ready in Hell.

    No COBOL for you. Or however they spell it. You had your wives, but like Onan you spilled your seen upon the ground. And lusted in your heart.

    Finally, the Internet will be safe, for both adults and children. At least in Utah.

  • ... is that they want a credit card for it. In and of itself this is not a problem, but then they go and start racking multiple charges on it that you never agreed to (so much for not charging like they say). sure you can dispute the charges but the fact is that what are now clearly bad actors now have your cc and your only recourse is to cancel the card. This can be a big pain in the ass if you have any other payments that regularly use that card.

    They don't accept prepaid gift cards for age verification because they don't tie to a person's identity. And debit cards will charge you an nsf fee if there are insufficient funds in your account.

    It's just a whole lot less hassle to just find free porn that doesn't bother with age checks.

    • ... is that they want a credit card for it.

      The Utah law does not allow credit cards to be used for verification, it requires the user to provide a government-issued ID. I'm not saying this is better, just pointing out that this is different from what you thought.

      I will also point out that the ISO 18013-5 mobile driving license standard (which I helped to write) actually provides a way to do verification without giving up any other identity information. Basically, it allows any subset of the information in the license to be presented and verified,

  • Before the internet we'd go to a newspaper store where nobody knew us and bought it there. Or found our parents' stash or knew a friend who had found that first.

    Recently, Anglosaxan populists have found ways to out themselves as holier than the pope. Congrats. /s

    Of course such measures are ineffective. With the internet comes the tech to enforce official age restrictions and the tech to bypass any such restrictions.

    Simplistic populists gonna find eye catching simple 'solutions' for their equally simple elec

  • Regular consumption of porn will RUIN any chance you have of having a relationship with a real person. It is a lie, and it makes you ugly inside. You will feel 100% better about yourself immediately after deciding to stop.

    • Regularly posting stupid fuckery will RUIN any chance you have of having a friendship with a real person. It is a lie, and it shows you're an idiot inside. We will feel 100% better about Slashdot immediately if you just fuck off.

    • Actually, my girlfriend and I both really, really like porn. It's fun to act out what's happening on the screen, especially when it's a movie you haven't seen before, so you don't know what's (cough) coming next.

      If you ever get a girlfriend or a wife, you might consider trying this.

    • loool that’s you bro, something wrong with you.

  • Isn't Utah that very conservative state where an unmarried couple will have a friend jiggle the mattress while they engage in coitus without moving...because that doesn't count as actual intercourse?

    Seems to me the more repressed you are, the more perverted you have to be if you want to get yer jollies.

    • Pre-marital sex isn't illegal in Utah, they're not fucking North Korea. That thing you've described is called "soaking," and I'm not a Mormon nor have I stayed in a dorm at Brigham-Young University, but best I can tell, it's more of an urban legend/inside joke than anything.

      • "it's more of an urban legend/inside joke"...

        Apparently not. My buddy used to date a Mormon after she left the faith. That wasn't the weirdest thing they did.

  • 1. Prophets ban born
    2. Prophets buy VPN co's
    3. $$$
    4. Profits for Prophets!

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