Age Verification

[UsuallyPresent]

Where I grew up, the wolves rode the moose!

(Not really, I grew up in pig and sweetcorn country.)

Beware the dreaded calf-pup chimera! Trip you with a nip to the heel before trampling you underhoof!

 

[shelleycat1]

People in the UK should remember the 2007 incident when details of half the population, roughly, were lost by sending 2CDs through the post. Unencrypted and untracked. We are supposed to believe the porn sites will be more motivated than HMRC in protecting users data. (Google hmrc cd rom data loss, to get the report about it.)

 

[alohadave]

I went to Urban Dictionary to find out what TiVoize meant. I was confronted with a plethora of Acronym links, which, in turn, presented me with more acronym links.

Can you tell me what you intended to convey?

Simplified interfaces.

 

[mildlyaroused]

Interesting to see how it pans out. As far as I'm concerned, written erotica probably shouldn't have the same level of restriction or enforcement as outright pornography, as you'd be hard pushed to argue that they cause the same level of damage or addiction. Any underage teen can walk into a book store and purchase the latest poorly-written romance which contains plenty of explicit sex. What makes this site complicated is, as people have said, the forums. There is an abundance of sexually explicit art and photography posted here. Maybe it's possible to separate the main site from the forums in terms of age verification.

Either way, I don't actually think this law will change very much for minors who seek out porn. It takes, no joke, less than 30 seconds to download a free VPN on the Chrome Web Store and connect to a random location in the Philippines. You can limit users' ability to access sites with a VPN (think sport broadcasting companies which sometimes manage just this), but porn sites would have no incentive to be this strict. They want customers. They don't give a shit how young their audience is.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Not sure if this is relevant but I'm in the UK and Literotica is on my mobile network's list of sites restricted for adult content. Interestingly, Reddit is not (even the dirty parts).

 

[ElvieG]

The UK age verification law isn't what it seems to be. It's mainly aimed at identifying users on social media platforms for reasons other than protecting children from pornography.

​

 

[Gamblnluck]

I went to Urban Dictionary to find out what TiVoize meant. I was confronted with a plethora of Acronym links, which, in turn, presented me with more acronym links.

Can you tell me what you intended to convey?

At my age, I even understood it. It lacked the capitalization TIVO ized. As a reference to that media.

 

[AchtungNight]

Interesting to see how it pans out. As far as I'm concerned, written erotica probably shouldn't have the same level of restriction or enforcement as outright pornography, as you'd be hard pushed to argue that they cause the same level of damage or addiction. Any underage teen can walk into a book store and purchase the latest poorly-written romance which contains plenty of explicit sex. What makes this site complicated is, as people have said, the forums. There is an abundance of sexually explicit art and photography posted here. Maybe it's possible to separate the main site from the forums in terms of age verification.

Either way, I don't actually think this law will change very much for minors who seek out porn. It takes, no joke, less than 30 seconds to download a free VPN on the Chrome Web Store and connect to a random location in the Philippines. You can limit users' ability to access sites with a VPN (think sport broadcasting companies which sometimes manage just this), but porn sites would have no incentive to be this strict. They want customers. They don't give a shit how young their audience is.

Pornhub has said before the U.S. Supreme Court that they don’t want kids illegally accessing their site. They also want valid adult customers to be able to access it without having to go through age verification, however. Larry Flynt expressed similar sentiments in multiple speeches while he was alive. There are other erotic media creators who feel similar, myself included. At the least, I don’t want some kid getting in trouble with their parents over looking at forbidden images. An old Calvin & Hobbes comic comes to mind.

Calvin- Dad, how come you live in this house with Mom instead of in an apartment with several scantily clad female roommates?

[one panel pause as Dad looks shocked]

Calvin- Geez, ask one simple question and get all your television privileges revoked.

I live in Texas also and I am irritated by not being able to access Pornhub. I’m glad other free sites don’t follow similar practices. Of course, I say this as an adult who is legally able to look at pornography if I want to do so. We’ll see if the laws change when the Supreme Court makes up its mind.

 

[Littletoo]

[Material prohibited per our forum guidelines.]

 

[Deleted member 6903436]

I'll be very interested. Not sure what I'd do if Lit started requiring photos or credit cards. Sure, they say they'll keep it private... Until the criminal employee starts selling info.

I would probably leave, however, I access through a VPN as standard anyway.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Locked-down devices that can’t be poked and fiddled with the same way PCs can. The exact meaning of the term is rather technical but that’s essentially what I meant.

Are you talking about phones? Yeah they can. Not really hardware-wise, though. Hell... the phone I just replaced in the bios menu, had a bootloader.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Does Literotica qualify as "pornography" under UK law?

Under US law, I don't think the written content qualifies as porn. I'm not sure if the visual content here would qualify as porn. Some of it might, but the Site has restrictions on the degree of explicitness of visual content that might take it outside the scope of porn.

Lit is porn--at least LinkTree thinks so.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Pornhub has said before the U.S. Supreme Court that they don’t want kids illegally accessing their site. They also want valid adult customers to be able to access it without having to go through age verification, however. Larry Flynt expressed similar sentiments in multiple speeches while he was alive. There are other erotic media creators who feel similar, myself included. At the least, I don’t want some kid getting in trouble with their parents over looking at forbidden images. An old Calvin & Hobbes comic comes to mind.

Calvin- Dad, how come you live in this house with Mom instead of in an apartment with several scantily clad female roommates?

[one panel pause as Dad looks shocked]

Calvin- Geez, ask one simple question and get all your television privileges revoked.

I live in Texas also and I am irritated by not being able to access Pornhub. I’m glad other free sites don’t follow similar practices. Of course, I say this as an adult who is legally able to look at pornography if I want to do so. We’ll see if the laws change when the Supreme Court makes up its mind.

Can't look at Pornhub here in Ky, either. It's annoying, but I don't look at porn enough to care outside of principles. I mainly look at it to repost on a porn twitter account I have.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Does Literotica qualify as "pornography" under UK law?

Under US law, I don't think the written content qualifies as porn. I'm not sure if the visual content here would qualify as porn. Some of it might, but the Site has restrictions on the degree of explicitness of visual content that might take it outside the scope of porn.

From the Ofcom website:

The Act defines pornographic content as content that was produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal. This only includes audio, image and video content. It does not include text or written content.

Note that Literotica has an audio section, and that the restrictions on illustrated content are less stringent than those on photos.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The UK age verification law isn't what it seems to be. It's mainly aimed at identifying users on social media platforms for reasons other than protecting children from pornography.

A law brought in "to protect the children" that isn't really about protecting children? Well I often.

 

[PapaRomantic]

They could just demand a thousand-word essay on what it was like to grow up in the 70s, 80s or 90s. I reckon that would cover most of us here, and anyone below the age of 18 trying to sneak past would probably get caught in the AI filter.

Great - many of us have been working on the 750 word goal on Lit, and now you're telling us we also need to come up with a thousand?

What is this world coming to?

 

[TheLobster]

Great - many of us have been working on the 750 word goal on Lit, and now you're telling us we also need to come up with a thousand?

What is this world coming to?

@StillStunned is the one who regularly whips us into doing 300ish words writing exercises. This is just par for the course.

 

[StillStunned]

@StillStunned is the one who regularly whips us into doing 300ish words writing exercises. This is just par for the course.

And I'll keep whipping you until someone calls out their safe word!

 

[TheRedChamber]

And I'll keep whipping you until someone calls out their safe word!

Geranium!

No...wait...cranium!

Errr...Cadmium?

I knew I should have written it down.

 

[AG31]

I would probably leave, however, I access through a VPN as standard anyway.

And if they require a credit card or photo ID, how does a VPN help you?

 

[PersonalFavors]

[Politics and trolling prohibited per our AH Forum Rules]

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

And if they require a credit card or photo ID, how does a VPN help you?

They only require the id and credit card for certain locations as determined by your ISP and IP address.
VPN lets you look like your somewhere else.

 

[StillStunned]

[Politics and trolling prohibited per our AH Forum Rules]

 

[PersonalFavors]

[Politics and trolling prohibited per our AH Forum Rules]

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I hate having to explain Liberals butt fucking in the senate hearing room, gay marriage and blow jobs to a young girl child.

Fucking in the Senate hearing room? My story with fucking in the Supreme Court and upper political chamber was fiction, I tell you, and not just because real stories aren't allowed on Lit.