Age verification laws designed to block children from online porn sites are sweeping the US, Io Dodds writes. But do they actually protect children, or is there another agenda at work?

Summary

Several U.S. states have enacted laws requiring pornography sites, such as PornHub, to implement age verification to prevent minors’ access, prompting the site’s parent company, Aylo, to block access in affected states.

Proponents argue these laws protect children, while critics highlight privacy risks, inefficiencies, and potential censorship.

These measures reflect growing social conservatism, with some advocates aiming to restrict adult content broadly.

While privacy-focused age verification methods exist, regulatory clarity is lacking.

Critics warn these laws may suppress responsible platforms, favoring unregulated alternatives, and escalate broader culture wars around sexuality and LGBTQ+ rights.

  • @captainlezbian
    1•1 day ago

    Yeah. When manifested healthily it is an outlet of joy, community, love, release, and all that good shit. It’s passion bound to pleasure and that disgusts them. To the fascist passion and love are to be reserved for the state. They want pent up angry weirdos who will do awful things. To them sexuality is for reproduction or expression of violence. And there’s nothing wrong with reproduction, but it, even more than sexuality, should exist for the purposes of love.

    Authoritarians find sexuality and opportunity for violence wherever they can, and if nothing can be stretched into it, they’ll make some excuse and do it anyways.