this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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No more Pornhub? That will depend on what happens with a Senate bill::A Senate bill might cause the owners of Pornhub to block access to the site in Canada, its owners say.

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[–] redfox@infosec.pub 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I enjoy these threads. I have noticed people really hate two themes here: (1) internet censorship, and (2) people screwing with their porn :)

(I'm not a pornhub user, nor advocating for the internet censorship nonsense, just a devils advocate question for fun)

Pretend for a second it was reasonably feasible to enforce this, so I'm asking you to forget how the internet/VPNs/tons of options work :)

  • If a site like pornhub 'PROMISED' to not log any user data under threat of death, but all they did was run a query against some government database that verifies age >= 18, would you do it?

  • Also, the government database 'PROMISES' to not log the source of the age only verification queries, would you do it?

So, if you say no, is it because you believe there's no way each of those organizations would keep their word or something else?

[–] Atlas_@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I don't trust them first off, but even trusting them to not voluntarily disclose it doesn't mean they won't have a security breach and disclose it involuntarily. Also, the database has to be created and queried somehow; some employees and govt workers will be able to see what queries are made. Even trusting the business and the govt and the security of both, I don't trust those random people having access to that info.

What evidence do you have to give the website that you are person X that they're running the database query against? If that's an ID there's going to be some available online, or a kid can just sneak it from the parent. Everything I've heard proposed for the identification strategy is either grossly invasive or quite easy to step over.

I don't believe that Canada will actually enforce this across all websites. If they do it on only the large/main ones, it makes it harder for kids to access the relatively safe and legal porn hosted on sites making effort to follow the law, and pushes them towards sites that aren't making such an effort and therefore probably have more objectionable content.

[–] w2tpmf@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

To put a positive spin on that...

If they enforced it on the big sites it would push many users (not just the kids) to other sites.

This could work toward breaking up the monopoly held by just a few big porn companies, and could be a good thing for the consumers.

Not all smaller sites are inherently nefarious. Maybe we'll see some competition start to rise. And maybe that competition won't be entirely full of "I fucked my sister/brother and/or my mom/dad" type porn like all the big companies keep cranking out.

[–] redfox@infosec.pub 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I agree with not liking people having that info, but ISPs do, unless you use VPN, and then the VPN does.

We just usually don't hear of that getting leaked from VPN providers since their reputation is on the line.

Data breach would also be a bummer. If a criminal group takes the time to breach a government database, I think it would be wasted effort to try black mailing people over porn access. Unless you're a priest. Then uh oh.

The way you get positive ID that can't be skirted is with government issues ID card with PKI. All US federal employees have ID cards issued by their department. It has certs that let you sign into computers, sign documents, etc. It's 2FA, card and a PIN.

Every driver in the US is supposed to have a driver's license. They just need to add PKI to them. Then you sign into a website with your DL and PIN. You'd never need a million accounts anymore. Caveats apply.