Sex writing being infringed?

[Actingup]

Control through unregulated censorship and fear rather through law is the more widespread and practical solution, isn’t it? I’m not an expert in these areas by any means, but I always find it disconcerting to go to a country like China or Saudi Arabia and be reminded that speech is not free or unnoticed.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

If you're citing American law, that's irrelevant to Australia law. All I can say is, age verification requirements are on their way in Australia for social media sites. Where Literotica sits in that definition, I have no idea.

Age verification laws for social media exists in several states here that have not implemented age verification for adult content sites. Different objectives

 

[PersonalFavors]

Control through unregulated censorship and fear rather through law is the more widespread and practical solution, isn’t it? I’m not an expert in these areas by any means, but I always find it disconcerting to go to a country like China or Saudi Arabia and be reminded that speech is not free or unnoticed.

This would be easy if it were about free speech. With the impossible verification "available" you are free to look at whatever you want. The providers are free to say or do whatever they want.
I think it was Texas that delayed the verification law based on privacy concerns. The person verifying has to give up too much information that is personally identifiable, to a different verification for each site, that is freely available to courts and congress state and federal. It is not verification it is a list. It is a process that is way too costly for the individual sites to provide verified access on their own. Some of the verification sites disclaim they have international obligations to provide data about those verified when requested. Wording is very careful that the person verifying cannot use the verification for other sites.
The whole thing is incredibly intrusive.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Yes, but when you're sufficiently cynical and acknowledge how easy it is for criminals to get elected and set policy, the rise of organized and corporatized crime is a feature, not a bug.

And for the record, I'm specifically referring to America's Prohibition Era and adjacent time periods. Although one can draw parallels between nearly any points in history.

I mean, I was like 5 o 6 years old, and Lit was just 1 year old when the criminal that started what would later become this stupid dystopia I live in came to power because the people voted for him, and we're still paying the price after he sat on the presidential seat, 25 years later, even when he died midway through the last 25 years. His successor only made things worse.

Crime became part of the small business economy throughout the 00s, and now... well, there's one gang that's in everybody's mouth all over the continent. Already seen this happen...

No they don't. If they're successful at driving all adult content underground, then we have the 1950s all over again, where truly degenerate forms of pornography flourished in the back alleys and speakeasies.

OTOH, there are so, so many ways to bypass this sort of Draconian bullshit. For instance, servers in the Cayman Islands (or other dens of iniquity) and VPN or VPN-like services such as Tor. Easy peasy. Countries like China can censor the Internet with things like mandatory BIOS hacks, but that sort of skulduggery is unlikely to gain traction in Western nations.

It's good to know that things haven't changed at all over the last a hundred years.

re: VPN, I noticed that; they are becoming increasingly popular more and more. Big tech is pulling off some ridiculous moves, and when governments push that needle further everyone is going to seek out new ways to access content, and it's not just porn. Here, there was a time where the most mainstream porn websites became unreachable through one ISP, but the quickest way to avoid that was using Opera's VPN. Some people also started using Tor, and after last year when they started censoring stuff after the rigged elections that nearly drove us into a civil war, people started getting free VPNs like Proton VPN or Hotspot Shield. The government also managed to ban access to those through their own ISP though. The government also banned X for all ISPs for like two weeks. Some ISPs uplifted the ban, but in other ISPs it is still in place. Things were so bad they even started violating the(ir own) law with the military and the police stopping people on the street and forcing them to give up their phones to check their message history. Any "suspicious messages" or "suspicious pictures" in your gallery found meant straight to a concentration camp.

I also live in a state that requires age verification, and while it is a pain, using a VPN negates the need to verify your age as long as you are able to pick an IP location that isn't also based in a state requiring verification. About half the states currently have age verification laws to access adult websites.
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Dark blue states have enacted age verification laws. Light blue states have age verification laws in the works.

In the meantime, I just select an IP location in Australia and go from there.

This is it. This is the most disturbing map I've ever seen.

Lyrics?!? How will they censor the nightly news? Television commercials?
This verification aspect is like a land grab.

No, you're missing something else! How will they censor... the Bible?

 

[PersonalFavors]

No question that VPN is a workaround, but it is a solution for right now.

I use PrivadoVPN, which is free with my yearly subscription to Easynews. Where this discussion is concerned, I simply launch it when I need to access an age restricted site and close it when I am done. No changes required for each use.

It can impact network throughput, but I don't typically have it open that long since my visits to these sites are research related. I gather the information I am seeking and leave.

I think the one I used was proton. Switch it on and off. It’s a problem. Switched on you can only view the one site. Once there there are very few local users. I’m not the only one who doesn’t care to isolate. I generally multitask. In the other windows being foreign or from another state is not convenient. Multi factor login on sites where security includes noticing you are not where you live becomes troublesome too. Prices and even product availability change as well.
At first I didn’t care as I don’t need porn hub or xhamster. Anal sex is not my interest. Other sites I wouldn’t want family or friends to know I visit that require it have become unnecessary. Like I said no one local is there so the site was rendered useless. Which I truly believe is the goal of the censors.

 

[PersonalFavors]

When I think about obscenity and law I think back to how the moving picture association polices themselves.
Since 2020 or so there isn’t hardly ever even a side boob seen in a movie any more. Let alone something erotic. One or two here and there but nothing really. When I was young I’m pretty sure HBO and Showtime had more content than any playboy or penthouse I happened across. I can remember watching and rewatching The Piano rooting for the women to somehow overcome the mean men. Seeing abuse did not make me abusive. However, seeing that bush made me a better lover. Eye on the prize.