A trojan horse to eliminate VPNs and implement social credit scores?
Or a way for the Federal government to overrule individual State rights and their rulings on this particular issue?
How the American war on porn could change the way you use the internet
Papers please: for millions of Americans, accessing online pornography now requires a government ID. It could have global implications for the future of the web.
Pay a visit to the website Pornhub while in the state of Texas today and you may be disappointed. Instead of the usual content you might find on a pornographic website, you'll get just a single video. It features a fully-clothed adult film star called Cherie DeVille – and she's discussing public policy.
"As you may know, your elected officials are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website," DeVille says in the video. Rather than asking its users to hand over photographic ID on every visit, she explains, Pornhub and its network of sister sites decided to simply block everyone in the state.
Texans aren't alone. As you read this, a pornography blackout is rolling across the US. In 2023, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Virginia all passed laws requiring age verification, and Pornhub blocked them all as the laws took hold. North Carolina and Montana followed at the beginning of 2024. Legislation in Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska sparked the same treatment in just the past few weeks. And with new laws scheduled to take effect, the shut-off could blanket the majority of the American South by this time next year. Pornhub – the fourth-most-popular website on Earth by some measures – may soon be blocked for one out of three Americans.
The stated aim of these laws is to protect children from accessing pornographic content amid concerns that it may cause harm by normalising aggressive or violent sexual behaviour and encouraging unrealistic expectations of sex.
To date, 19 US states have passed laws requiring pornographic websites to verify their users age since 2022, and lawmakers have proposed age verification bills at the national level. The move towards requiring ID checks isn't limited to adult sites, either. Other proposed regulations in the US, the UK, the EU, Australia, and parts of Asia may soon require age verification for social media and a variety of other platforms.
This is the canary in the coalmine, it isn't just about porn – Evan Greer
Proponents say it is no different from the ID check required to buy a pack of cigarettes, common-sense safety efforts that will work as well online as they do in retail settings. "It's very simple," says Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank and one of the key organisations advocating for age verification laws. "We don't think kids should be able to access the amount of pornography that they're able to access today."
But those who oppose the new rules say the laws are poorly designed and could even push people to darker parts of the internet, putting children and adults in more danger. They also argue that the repercussions of the new legislation could have profound consequences for the future of the internet and the freedom it affords. "Let's be honest, between social media and pornography, that's probably the bulk of everyone's online activity," says Daniel Kahn Gillmor, senior staff technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240723-how-the-american-war-on-porn-could-change-your-internet