"In the US, "the advocates for these bills have largely fallen into two groups: faith-based organizations that don't believe adult content should be legal, and age verification providers who stand to profit from a restricted internet." The goal of faith-based organizations, he says, is to destabilize the adult industry and dissuade adults from using it, while the latter works to expand their market as much as possible, "even if that means getting in bed with right-wing censors.""
"But the problem is that "even well-meaning legislators advancing these bills have little understanding of the internet," Stabile adds. "It's much easier to go after a political punching bag like Pornhub than it is Apple or Google. But if you're not addressing the reality of the internet, if your legislation flies in the face of consumer behavior, you're only going to end up creating systems that fail.""
Age verification laws and broader efforts to deanonymize internet users are altering how people engage with online services and increasing risks for marginalized and politically disfavored populations. These measures affect industries beyond pornography, including gaming and social media, and are prompting age restrictions such as Australia's policy removing under-16s from major platforms. Political initiatives include attempts to curtail adult content through state-level laws. Two main forces propel these measures: faith-based actors aiming to undermine adult industries and commercial verification providers seeking new markets. A lack of legislative understanding of internet realities risks creating ineffective, censorious, and surveillance-prone systems.
Read at WIRED
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]