Have devices do the blocking for kids by having sites required to identify themselves as adult oriented in a standard way. The bad sites aren’t going to enact the requirements for people to identify themselves any more than they would enact the requirements for sites to identify themselves to devices but it eliminates the tracking of adults and blocking of legitimate content to children with parental permission like sexual education sites.
Pornhub is urging tech giants to enact device-based age verification
Submitted 3 weeks ago by along_the_road@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
Comments
irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
They already do flag themselves and have done for at least 20 years.
cristian64@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Is this right? Out of curiosity, how do these sites flag themselves as content for adults?
Obviously, this is the solution. Sites that do this correctly, and software that detects the metadata. Parents are the ones that need to choose the correct software and enable the correct settings.
Sites that do not set the correct metadata are legible to be banned by authorities.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
None of this shit is ever going to stop kids from finding porn (or anything else they’re determined to find). I owe my career in IT to figuring out how to circumvent all the parental control things my parents put on the family pc and cover my tracks. All you can do is supervise them as best you can and teach them about being responsible and what’s real vs imaginary.
irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Exactly, so give parents the tools to filter and make it their responsibility to police their children. Don’t make everyone give up their privacy and sometimes, security, and safety to shitty corporations who will eventually leak all of their data. Which is exactly what both I and pornhub are saying.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
I kinda agree, but it doesn’t need to be verification. Just a standardised child account set for the OS that devices come with. Make it really fucking obvious when setting up a device too, parents can be morons so don’t give them that excuse.
Make it clear that the parents are responsible.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 weeks ago
This is what California just passed into law, I think they’re thinking the same thing and trying to force the hand a bit before I’d verification becomes the only option.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Its the best option I can think of that doesn’t infringe on privacy in any way while also working. The parents are responsible and technical changes that help make that more obvious to society along with making it easier for parents that can’t be bothered to look after their children seems like the best compromise to reduce the chance of the otherwise inevitable loss of privacy that we are going to face. Or in some cases, already have.
Deyis@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
parents can be morons so don’t give them that excuse.
I promise you that they will still find a way to fuck it up. Badly.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Sure will. But it’s about setting expectations. Make sure society views the parents as responsible too because they clearly gave the kid unfiltered internet access.
Lembot_0005@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
Pornhub became boring as fuck. It looks like (not sure how it really is) they now host videos only from a dozen studios and the lack of diversity shows. Additional limits will kill it.
rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 3 weeks ago
Here’s what happened speaking as someone who worked for 3 adult companies that were all bought by manwin/pornhub.
They bought out too many companies that hosted user generated porn/"reality” porn and couldn’t/didn’t do anything with it.
Take Pink Visual/Twistys for example. a good 10 years or so ago they bought them (I was working there) Now the only thing Twistys had going for it was A. the actual Twisty brand which was like a B or C tier Playboy and B. it’s user generated sites (GayTube, SexTube, TrannyTube, etc) and arguably Gaytube was in the later stages of the companies life making the money. It was all user and affiliated submitted content that had to be manually moderated (that was me) in order to go up on the site. Yes I saw/reported a lot of underage content but overall the majority was consenting adults and there was A LOT of it. Side note you know the video of the guy that sticks the jar up his ass and it doesn’t go well? we got that first and I denied it buttttttttt I did send it along to some “other” sites. you’re welcome.
Every “user” site was moderated by at least 2 people. each one. When manwin bought us they didn’t bother with that and got their asses nailed for it. SO instead of using moderators to view all the content submitted they decided to just not allow any of it unless it was from a studio. the problem with that? they pretty much bought all the studios and promptly either relocated them or shut them down. This is what happened to another company I worked for, Digital Pink. They did “reality porn” like Wife Swap, College Orgy Party or whatever it was called, and a shit ton more I can’t remember. We also ran a massive and very successful affiliate program called Topbucks. Manwin buys the company and again doesn’t do anything with it. all that content goes bye bye. And because there’s no content the affiliates aren’t making money so all those smaller niche sites also go bye bye.
The lack of content as you’ve clearly seen is their own doing. A handful of content studios remain and all those creators that were submitting their own stuff to us have gone else where be it onlyfans or simply putting up their own crap somewhere. the ONE company that has been around longer than any of it and STILL hasn’t sold to Manwin/Pornhub and is all amateur created content is Southern-Charms but…yeah you’ll be hard pressed to find a “looker” on that site.
Manwin became a sort of monopoly for porn. They just didn’t do anything with the shit they bought and now after all these years they’re starting to hurt. They won’t be around much longer.
Lembot_0005@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
Thanks for the explanation. I know nothing about the industry, and from the outside it really looked like they just wanted to save a few bucks on the moderators and stopped receiving videos from any sources except for a few they know well. I had no idea that they buy studios en masse.
Monopolies (especially monopolies of something that isn’t totally unavoidable and necessary) never end well. And it is good.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
They were caught out hosting non-consential and underage material, and so made a blanket ban of any material other than verified creators.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Its because PH sanatized the site because of all the alleged pedophilia/ SA videos. i think some other sites have captured the old PH in various videos on thier categories. ironically, PH stored the tumbler have thier porn purge, and now PH purged thier own “unprofessional porn” largely is scattered in other obscure sites.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
Honestly, would you mind DMing some of the better sites you’ve found?
SpaceXplorer_8042@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Why is pornhub doing this all of a sudden? I thought they were against the digital ID bs. How is device-based age verification different?
e0qdk@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
How is device-based age verification different?
You put your device in child safety mode, and it tells sites “I’m a kid, treat me like a kid” – otherwise the site can assume you’re an adult with full rights. Done. No intrusive ID requirements. No face scanning. No third-party payment shakedowns. Parents, in theory, can still stop their five year olds from accidentally accessing PornHub or other content that would disturb them by just clicking a button when they set up an account on the device.
It’s, frankly, the sane way to do this if we’re going to have age restrictions.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Mainstream adult sites carry a flag which trips content blockers. Have done for decades. Its all nonsense.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
They know that verification is happening as we shift rightwards, but instead of being the ones beholden to implement an age-verification system that puts them at risk, they want to have device manus do it, which would absolve PH from any responsibility. It’s a business move, on their part.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 weeks ago
Because if they don’t do something like this they’re going to lose a massive amount of their user base. If something like this doesn’t happen then it’s id verification, and it’s pretty clear republicans want that nationwide, and UK proves that other countries also want it. This would provide a format to say “I’m over 18 let me in” without needing to provide an id, and so most of their users could still enjoy privately. Decent compromise imo
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
PH’s parent was one of the front running bids to operate the UK age verification scheme before it was abandoned.
teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Because they know the “party of anti-regulation/anti-nannie state” will never trust people to police themselves. They acknowledge either they will have to do a bunch of work and be liable when it fails, or some middle man will. So they choose the middle man.
i_ben_fine@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
The overton window has shifted. We’ve just assumed age verification will be a thing and now everybody is looking for the solution that doesn’t burden them. Don’t comply. There are already tools parents can use to monitor their children.
wicked_samurai@beehaw.org 2 weeks ago
Could this be a good thing, if you opt-in (aren’t required to do whatever verification your phone wants)? I would absutely never give my id to any porn site so if there were a secure way for my phone to say “yep, they are over the required age” then that could be an acceptable solution. If the phone doesn’t store your ID photo, that would be very good.
Unusable3151@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
This would require “verified” operating systems: No alternative Android-based OSes. No Linux phone. Hell, no Linux desktop, or at least we would be stuck with a big-tech-built proprietary web browser.
This is a terrible idea.
ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
cookies:{username=JohnDoe; path=/; expires=Fri, 31 Dec 2025 23:59:59 GMT; over_eighteen=totally_bro_trust_me}
i am glad, however, that we’re not reshaping society in order to be more convenient customers for pornhub…
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
What constitutes a “verified” operating system?
Unusable3151@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Whatever Apple, Microsoft, and Google decide it does.
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Whoever lobbies the govt the most to wrote the legislation
limerod@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Verified Operating System is the one where the manufacturer or OEM has built, installed, with a guarantee that it has not been tampered or rooted in any manner which can hinder DRM or any security guarantee it offers by default.
Think SafetyNet and verified boot on android, Or UEFI secure boot on windows.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Well it requires a verified source for the data. I don’t see why it excludes open source at all.
Unusable3151@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Because of who decides how such verification gets built. Just look at what is happening with Android apps to know how big tech companies will handle it. f-droid.org/…/google-developer-registration-decre…