Supreme Court (SCOTUS) upholds a Texas law that requires porn websites to verify that their visitors are 18 or older, rejecting a First Amendment challenge to the law
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It doesn’t exist, but that is what some are suggesting and hoping is going to be made with these laws being passed. It would be a really good thing for the internet and websites/apps as a whole tbh if a system like this is made, and it’s not like it would be difficult.
The sites wouldnt need your information, they would just verify that the person attempting to access the site is authenticated as being 18+.
How do you verify someone is 18 without your information?
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Today’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is a direct blow to the free speech rights of adults. The Court ruled that “no person—adult or child—has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting proof of age.” This ruling allows states to enact onerous age-verification rules that will block adults from accessing lawful speech, curtail their ability to be anonymous, and jeopardize their data security and privacy. These are real and immense burdens on adults, and the Court was wrong to ignore them in upholding Texas’ law.
And now those VPN subscriptions go up, up, up.
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How do you verify someone is 18 without your information?
By verifying with a central age verification system.
What has been thrown around, and what should hopefully be the solution, is that a government agency (as a last resort) or a independent trusted authority makes a system where you create an account and verify your age with your documents with them. Then they have public APIs for sites to hit - you give the site a unique key (preferably you would generate individual keys that are tied to your account for every site) and all that site does is hit that API going “Is the person that this key belongs to 18+?”, and the response is yes or no.
Simple, secure, private. The site you’re accessing doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t get your details. The age verification site also doesn’t necessarily know the site you were using, and this should not be logged either.
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I could point out how content on YouTube is absolutely not rated or restricted, or share anecdotes about some of the shocking things that have shown up on the grandkids phones, but none of that matters because it’s clear that you are staunchly authoritarian.
We get it. You get think people shouldn’t be trusted to raise or monitor their own kids and need Big Brother to infringe on the expressive rights of everyone else as a result. That these “liberal perverts” lose what little privacy they have left as a result is the cherry on top, I’m sure. Everyone here knows where you are coming from, what you believe, and what you want. It’s no mystery. There isn’t some mystical angle that we’ve all somehow overlooked. The disconnect is, the things you are trying to argue in favor of are deeply unethical, oppressive, irrational, and evil. Why are you even on Lemmy if you hold such perverse totalitarian fantasies in your heart? The mere existence of this software is a monument against such sick ideology.
YouTube absolutely has age restricted content, what are you talking about?
Age-restricted content - YouTube Help
Sometimes content doesn't violate our Community Guidelines, but it may be incompatible with YouTube's Terms of Service or not appropriate for viewers under 18. In these cases, we may place an age-rest
(support.google.com)
Age-restricted content
Sometimes content doesn't violate our Community Guidelines, but it may be incompatible with YouTube's Terms of Service or not appropriate for viewers under 18. In these cases, we may place an age-restriction on the video. This policy applies to videos, video descriptions, custom thumbnails, live streams, and any other YouTube product or feature.
Did you really not know this was a thing? I can’t even listen to half of the music I like on YouTube without being signed in because of age restrictions lol.
You think I’m authoritarian? You could not be more incorrect if you tried lol. I think parents should be more responsible for the content their kids consume and what they do - but I also believe that age restrictions on content should exist to prevent access when even the best of parents can’t be there to stop it. I’m one of the few people on Lemmy who actually argues FOR free speech and less censorship lol
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By verifying with a central age verification system.
What has been thrown around, and what should hopefully be the solution, is that a government agency (as a last resort) or a independent trusted authority makes a system where you create an account and verify your age with your documents with them. Then they have public APIs for sites to hit - you give the site a unique key (preferably you would generate individual keys that are tied to your account for every site) and all that site does is hit that API going “Is the person that this key belongs to 18+?”, and the response is yes or no.
Simple, secure, private. The site you’re accessing doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t get your details. The age verification site also doesn’t necessarily know the site you were using, and this should not be logged either.
Lmao. Yeah, the government is going to implement this? Assuming it is actually secure, when do you expect this to release? A decade from now?
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Warning yes, restrictions no.
I’d love to hear from the 3 downvotes on why they downvoted me here lol. Do they think that pornhub does have age verification and restricts those who haven’t verified their age?
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Lmao. Yeah, the government is going to implement this? Assuming it is actually secure, when do you expect this to release? A decade from now?
Would be incredibly easy to make secure, as it wouldn’t even need to store the verification documents or anything personally identifiable once your account is set up.
I think if the government is actually serious about doing this they will need to do it, or outsource it to someone who will. I don’t actually think these laws will take effect in December.
This could even be done incredibly easily via myGov for example. It has everyone’s information including DOB. I could build an age verification API for that in a night with time for a good snooze.
Do you agree that it is possible without all of the porn sites getting your information now at least?
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sex is bad but dropping bombs on muslims is okay
Decapitating children is fine, but youth masturbating is not! Simple as.
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Would be incredibly easy to make secure, as it wouldn’t even need to store the verification documents or anything personally identifiable once your account is set up.
I think if the government is actually serious about doing this they will need to do it, or outsource it to someone who will. I don’t actually think these laws will take effect in December.
This could even be done incredibly easily via myGov for example. It has everyone’s information including DOB. I could build an age verification API for that in a night with time for a good snooze.
Do you agree that it is possible without all of the porn sites getting your information now at least?
Less button clicks to just use a free online vpn
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Would be incredibly easy to make secure, as it wouldn’t even need to store the verification documents or anything personally identifiable once your account is set up.
I think if the government is actually serious about doing this they will need to do it, or outsource it to someone who will. I don’t actually think these laws will take effect in December.
This could even be done incredibly easily via myGov for example. It has everyone’s information including DOB. I could build an age verification API for that in a night with time for a good snooze.
Do you agree that it is possible without all of the porn sites getting your information now at least?
Theoretically possible? Sure. Though I don’t trust the US government with this information either.
Then there a completely different problem to be concerned with: https://chinamediaproject.org/2025/06/04/chinas-slow-march-toward-cyber-ids/
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Theoretically possible? Sure. Though I don’t trust the US government with this information either.
Then there a completely different problem to be concerned with: https://chinamediaproject.org/2025/06/04/chinas-slow-march-toward-cyber-ids/
The government already has access to what sites you visit btw. They already know if you’re a big booty fan or a gagging kinda guy. They’ve got their fingers in every ISP
I think that a few independent secure age verification services will pop up soon enough. Wouldn’t surprise me if the parent company of pornhub or one of those sites makes it themselves. There’s huge money to be made in it.
Hell I might start asking around with my lawyer friends to see what would be required. Could knock it out in a weekend. The hardest part would be finding the consequences/legal issues of verifying based on fake documents.
And yes countries like the US, UK, and Australia are all fast approaching a digital id that will be used to access the internet. Australia will be the first. We’re basically the testing ground for authoritarian tracking and control laws, and our population are too dumb as a whole to understand what is going on. We’re already getting a Digital ID system soon, and our banks are going cashless. Currently whenever you try to take cash out of more than a few hundred bucks you get a free game of 20 questions and they will refuse to give you your own money if they don’t like your answers.
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Today’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is a direct blow to the free speech rights of adults. The Court ruled that “no person—adult or child—has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting proof of age.” This ruling allows states to enact onerous age-verification rules that will block adults from accessing lawful speech, curtail their ability to be anonymous, and jeopardize their data security and privacy. These are real and immense burdens on adults, and the Court was wrong to ignore them in upholding Texas’ law.
The headline got me on the first third.
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sex is bad but dropping bombs on muslims is okay
It's just how Jesus would have wanted
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Today’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is a direct blow to the free speech rights of adults. The Court ruled that “no person—adult or child—has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting proof of age.” This ruling allows states to enact onerous age-verification rules that will block adults from accessing lawful speech, curtail their ability to be anonymous, and jeopardize their data security and privacy. These are real and immense burdens on adults, and the Court was wrong to ignore them in upholding Texas’ law.
I wonder what all the "pro-porn", "pro-free speech", gamergate republican pundits on the internet have to say about this...
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sex is bad but dropping bombs on muslims is okay
Strangely the right to life crowd really loves killing people. However I do think it is unfair to label them as anti-muslim, because the also love killing children, women, the poor... Basically anyone who is not rich and male.
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Here's that nanny state Republicans were always talking about
Projection, it is secretly what they wanted the whole time.
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Less button clicks to just use a free online vpn
They're coming for our VPNs soon enough, be sure of that. Here in Australia they've already flagged wanting to ban them.