top of page

Pornhub Is Doing the Lord's Work!

robertfarago1


An peripatetic (not to say priapic) traveler may have noticed that several states have blocked access to Pornhub. Instead of thumbnails of naked people bumping uglies, visitors from Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Virginia, Montana, North Carolina and Mississippi are greeted by the following less-than-salacious text:


As you may know, your elected officials in North Carolina 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.

The Show-Me State (Missouri) isn't one of the seven states mandating user age verification for "adult" sites. Nor is it one of the five (Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska) about to join the growing anti-pornography gang bang. Jihad? Campaign? Something.


Pornhub's Road to Damascus


Pornhub's home page defense against the flurry of porn user ID laws opens with a simple declaration: "safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission."


This from a company once home to tens if not hundreds of thousands of rape, revenge and spycam videos. A company that failed to remove and/or block the illegal and amoral content in a timely manner, even after complaints from their distraught and damaged victims.


To be fair, growing public outrage put Pornhub on the road to Damascus.


In December 2020, the Canadian company launched their "commitment to trust and safety." Content providers now have to verify their identity. Pornhub polices content and responds quickly to complaints. Owner MindGeek publishes a yearly Transparency Report.


At this point, whether or not Pornhub's conversion to ethical porn was motivated by self-preservation is besides the point. Despite its unconscionable past, by opposing these user ID laws, Pornhub is doing the Lord's work. Albeit not very well.


Censorship


Pornhub's home page asserts that porn user ID laws are "not the most effective solution for protecting our users." Hang on. Which users? Adults or children? Protection from what? What is an effective solution?


Pornhub's PR peeps point out that the ID laws create "a substantial risk of identity theft, phishing and other harms."


Data-compromised consumers of Adult Friend Finder, Brazzers and Luscious can relate. Not to mention the blackmailed victims of the Ashley Madison breach.


Yes but – the possibility of a data breach is out there, anyway, on any and every website or app used by anyone for any reason. The real danger of these new porn user ID laws to adults: government censorship.


Indiana's cut-and-paste porn user ID law covers any "adult oriented website that displays material harmful to minors."


A description that a social justice warrior with a District Attorney day job could apply to a website denying climate change. Or the January 6th "insurrection." Or condemning homosexuality. If you give a mouse a cookie...



Pornhub's home page statement doesn't draw attention to Big Brother's red flag flying. Instead, the porn provider contends that user ID laws "put children at risk."


Pornhub's polemic argues that "without proper enforcement" the law "drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place."


Wait. What? Pornhub opposes user ID laws because they're not tough enough? Leading kids to sites with the kind of bad porn Pornhub used to post, rather than Pornhub's latter day ethical porn?


Aside from this own goal, Pornhub fails to address the elephant in the room: the government has no business deciding what content children should or shouldn't watch.


Unless I woke up in Communist China this morning, that decision is a parent's perogative. Unfortunately, Pornhub's "solution" to the problem of underage porn access isn't a call for better real world supervision.


Pornhub's Counter Proposal


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. 

Who's stupid enough to think kids aren't smart enough to unblock or circumvent a device blocked from a porn site or sites?


Besides, there are plenty of easy-to-use apps that can block a specified website or type of website from a specified device (at least until the kids find a workaround). To that end, Pornhub is RTA [Restricted to Adults] compliant.


The Road to Hell...


is paved with porn. Well, some people think so. Other people think pornography can be safe, pleasurable and useful for adults, and future adults exploring developing sexuality.


How and where parents draw the line for those young 'uns is not an easy question to answer. But deferring that responsibility to government or porn sites is a huge mistake.


The porn user ID laws open the door to the Nanny state. A place where people are subject to the government's fantasies, rather than peacefully pursuing – or just perusing – their own.


Click here for X updates on new posts and bonus material

116 views8 comments

8 Comments



lynnwgardnerusa
Jun 22, 2024

Your point is absolutely correct. Children are being given electronic devices before they can walk. They know this operation much better then adults. Robert it was like when we were in school and begged for our parents to get us a TI-50 calculator and the response was what do you need that for do the math in your head. We understood calculators much better then our parents. Kids will find work arounds so it is up to the parents to set boundaries

Like

Guest
Jun 21, 2024

The Nanny State has already arrived. And, despite that, the real danger to most citizens/consumers isn’t yet from government. It’s from private industry. I just bought a new car and I had to make a half dozen phone calls to the manufacturer to turn off the TCU in my vehicle.


While allowing a number of useful and convenient features, the TCU also transmits excruciating detail about the way I drive back to the mother ship. That data is then sold to third parties and eventually ends up in the hands of insurance companies, which often raise one’s premiums based on a few given actions by the driver - actions taken out of context by algorithms.


Assuming the company really did…


Edited
Like
robertfarago1
Jun 21, 2024
Replying to

Privacy is dead. The only way to achieve it is to go off the grid. I have neither the skills nor the inclination to do so.

Edited
Like

Guest
Jun 21, 2024

Thank you for saying censorship and not claiming a free speech argument. Pornography is excluded from free speech and is to be censored. Ignoring morality, it is the same as other vices in it diminishes the user and society in general. ISP's should be doing this instead but this is where government regulation has to step in where the common good proves less profitable for an industry.

Like
robertfarago1
Jun 21, 2024
Replying to

Yeah… I’m something of a free speech absolutist. To the point where I’m ok with hate speech as long as it doesn’t incite immediate violence.


Sure, there has to be a line somewhere.


Good businessmen that they are, the Canucks at Pornhub have done just that: created boundaries to lessen the damage it did, and would do otherwise.


I understand the arguments of people who are anti-porn full stop. If nothing else, I’ve met people in the industry and it’s not a healthy working environment- to say the least.


To those people who are anti-porn per se I emphasize that the First Amendment only limits government censorship. We are all free to decry porn and censor it for ourselves and…


Edited
Like

DrMikeinPDX
Jun 21, 2024

One of the great questions of our time! Society always adapts to new technology, but the process can be messy.

Like
robertfarago1
Jun 21, 2024
Replying to

I don’t remember new tech being this wild a ride, but like they say, you can’t stop the signal.

Like
bottom of page