Virginia age-verification law

Internet and technology
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So, my state (Virginia, USA) recently passed a new “age-verification” law per the orders of Governor Glenn Youngkin. I only learned about it once I attempted accessing a pornsite. This is what I was met with:

You must be 18+ to access xHamster

In order to comply with Virginia law, we have implemented a procedure to verify the age of users accessing our website from Virginia.

How do you want to confirm your age?

Age estimation (Take a photo of your face to confirm your age.)

Digital ID app (Simply share you’re 18 or over – and nothing more.)

ID verification (Confirm your age with your passport, driving licence or national ID.)

I’m sorry, you want me to give you a picture of my face or give you ID? Not a chance!

PornHub straight-up blocked themselves in VA:

Dear user,

As you may know, your elected officials in Virginia are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. 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.

In addition, mandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply. As we’ve seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place. Very few sites are able to compare to the robust Trust and Safety measures we currently have in place. To protect children and user privacy, any legislation must be enforced against all platforms offering adult content.

The safety of our users is one of our biggest concerns. We believe that the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification. Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Virginia.

Please contact your representatives before it is too late and demand device-based verification solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy.

Well, at least I can still access R34 and ATF (for now), but what the Hell?

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I find that hilarious considering that PornHub were literally willing to hop into bed with the UK gov’t over rolling out age verification.

Fucking hypocrites.

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There was an anime encyclopedia site that followed German law, so to access info on hentai works, they not only needed an image of my driver’s license (which would be fine, given that I actually have a scan on hand), but that it needed to be a “fresh” one AKA a photo of it next to a sheet of paper with stuff that the site ordered written written on it.

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You need a good VPN.

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I was going to ask if you could bypass it via Tor, but Tor is incredibly slow from what I’ve heard.

Though Pornhub have a Tor .onion iirc.

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Sometimes. Mostly improved lately. I access a great 3D site there.

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this law is just ridiculous and people will find ways to bypass it…It also makes it much harder for smaller sites with adult content to try and scan everyone… It’s impossible to do so

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The UK is going to be doing the exact same thing.

The moment that happens, I’ll be using Tor.

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Something that was pointed out on the r/Virginia subreddit is that this restriction will only lead young people to look for porn on less reputable sites. Sites that aren’t as strictly moderated, y’know? Goes to show that laws like this, in fact, do NOT protect children. Quite the opposite.

Also, saw another post on r/Virginia about a longtime VA resident who moved to New York. Even though they moved out of VA, pornsites were still blocked for them! What kinda nonsense is this!?

Goddammit Youngkin…

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Sounds like anisearch. They do the bare minimum tho which is nice. Birth date is all that needs to be visible, everything else can be hidden.

Based fact: Half the staff on that site are lolicons with one 61 year old staffer reviewing loli(con) series all the time.

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Sounds like the effects of Alcohol Prohibition.

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Update: It would seem Texas has joined my native Virginia as yet another state that PornHub has abandoned following new identification laws. “Protecting the children” indeed…

Pornhub disabled in Texas over age-verification requirements | The Texas Tribune

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I ran up against it last week. My VPN was through a VA server. They asked for something super personal, so I switched my VPN server to another state; no problem! Crap like this is only a roadblock for toddlers and geezers that are clueless when it comes to computers. Any 10yo will figure out a way around it!
The ruling idiots strike again!

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If I could sneak AOL floppy disk into 10th grade school and load up the included browser for porn in Windows 3.10, I think the generation today can handle pushing a VPN ON button.
That said, I hate having to use VPN for anything. It adds a lot of lag to my connection.
The Constitution seems about as worthless as 1 ply toilet paper, the 1st Amendment is dead, and I really don’t see much hope for society.
Still, try to have a good weekend everyone.

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Update 2:

“Supreme Court declines to block enforcement of age-verification requirements for porn sites”

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So the Supreme Court no longer recognizes the 1st Amendment or their own decades of precedent. Since they won’t even put the brakes on this law, I am not holding out much hope for the final ruling.

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Actually, that is quite normal for them. They rarely intervene until the case has reached the final determination at all other levels of appeal.

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The law itself is unconstitutional because it allows the Attorney General to sue, and the law seeks to perform a patently unconstitutional function.

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I never said it wasn’t. Just that SCOTUS historically won’t engage until the case goes through any state courts up to the state supreme court, the federal district court, a 3 judge panel of the circuit Court and the en banc ruling from the entire circuit court of appeals.

Stupid, because a right delayed is a right denied, but that’s what they do.

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I dunno. I’m also worried about it being Alito. Alito hates free speech, or personal freedom of any kind that his faction doesn’t sign off on. Jackals and fascists, the lot of them.

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