The folks who are interested in content like this will still search it out, but now they're more likely to end up on shadier sites instead. Pornhub (Aylo), as porn sites go, is legitimate and goes out of their way to remove problem content and follow laws and regulations. They are also based in Canada. I'm sure there are other sites that are much worse that will fill this vacuum.
The only thing PH doesn't seem keen on is compromising their users' privacy and serving as age-enforcer.
So this legislation seems to make things worse, not better. Sure, you can always say "well PH could just comply with the age-verification laws," but I applaud them for taking a stand on privacy, and also them saying "fine, if you don't like us here we'll leave." It's really a loss for exactly the states that are passing these laws. They'll just end up with people going to shadier sites.
What worries me most though, is that this will lead to people using VPNs more (which is fine), but then states making VPNs themselves illegal (they'll use terms like "tools to circumvent...") which is super bad.
I'll add that there's plenty of porn easily accessible on Reddit and Twitter and those websites haven't implemented any age verification measures yet. Chat apps like Discord and Telegram host a lot too.
My guess is if the lawmakers are successful in making porn websites comply with age verification then all social media websites will have to next.
> ... is legitimate and goes out of their way to remove problem content ...
This is blatantly not true. I know because I've reported a clearly illegal video on every avenue I could find (the report button, emailing support, etc..) and the video was only taken down when PornHub removed all videos expect the verified ones some years ago.
I didn't say that they remove every single piece of problem content, or that they remove every single thing a user flags. But I do believe that they go out of their way to do so. They make way too much money to do otherwise.
Also, they may (I hope) be a better company now than in the past, as your example seems to show (you indicate that they started requiring verification for uploaded videos). Maybe they grew up, or maybe they just realized that their revenue (or entire business) would be compromised unless they took serious, ongoing action.
In any case - Aylo/PH must certainly be better than many of the alternatives that are based in very permissive jurisdictions and just don't care. Those are the sites people in these Southern states are going to end up on now.
Yeah, no. They absolutely did not do everything in their capacity. The complete opposite is my anecdotal unsourced take.
I worked w/ a woman who used 1000s of sockpuppets of soldiers near military bases to try to wax out information about the aggression associated with their suggestion algorithms.
Pornhub is worse than YT when it comes to encouraging radicalism. She didn't even get to publish and she would receive dildos, fleshlights, and other horrific things. She left the country.
This isn’t a counterargument. Yes, mainstream US sites are not saints and have many serious issues. Also yes, they are least subject to US jurisdiction and can be held to some account. If these restrictions drive users to websites that are far, far worse then they will be doing more harm than good.
But whenever i've done so from alt accounts I get brigaded. I have literally paid people to edit comments to improve my tone and it makes no difference.
I'm just sharing a small, honest, account of lived experience. I come here for discussion. Not debate. certainly not argument. If i present myself incorrectly I try to act reflexively and openly.
Some people want to discount that and make everything fact based but sometimes sharing facts on the wrong forum just further reinforces injustice.
I do 20+ pushups, crunches, or burpees in between posts across the web. lol
Whenever I've hired a copy editor to help me deal with the line noise in my writing (sometimes a keyboard feels like a Ouija board to me) I've found they inject more errors (and more serious errors) than I do myself.
You seem to be having some communication misalignments. What ticked me off is the combativeness you displayed. Insisting hard on your side with words like “blatantly” and “Yeah, no”. Also doing burpees and pushups sounds interesting - are you overstimulated? Is that a form of stimming? Are you in the spectrum?
All aylo sites have a feature to take down content, it happens automatically and then content is sent for manual check. If it's a false report it's brought back online otherwise its permanently gone.
> So you're saying it was not true several years ago, but is true now?
IIRC, they only did anything because NYT op-ed writer basically went to war with them and shined a very bright light on all the shady stuff they were tolerating. That speaks to their true motivations.
The only thing PH doesn't seem keen on is compromising their users' privacy and serving as age-enforcer.
So this legislation seems to make things worse, not better. Sure, you can always say "well PH could just comply with the age-verification laws," but I applaud them for taking a stand on privacy, and also them saying "fine, if you don't like us here we'll leave." It's really a loss for exactly the states that are passing these laws. They'll just end up with people going to shadier sites.
What worries me most though, is that this will lead to people using VPNs more (which is fine), but then states making VPNs themselves illegal (they'll use terms like "tools to circumvent...") which is super bad.