Tag: porn

Porn Sites Must Block VPNs To Comply With Indiana’s Age-Verification Law, State Suggests in New Lawsuit

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is suing dozens of porn websites, claiming that they are in violation of the state’s age-verification law and seeking “injunctive relief, civil penalties, and recovery of costs incurred to investigate and maintain the action.”

Last year, Indiana Senate Bill 17 mandated that websites featuring “material harmful to minors” must verify that visitors are age 18 or above. Rather than start checking IDs, Aylo—the parent company of Pornhub and an array of other adult websites—responded by blocking access for Indiana residents.

Now, Indiana says this is not good enough. To successfully comply, Pornhub and other Aylo platforms (which include Brazzers, Youporn, and Redtube, among others) must also block virtual private networks and other tools that allow internet users to mask their IP addresses, the state suggests.

This is an insane—and frighteningly dystopian—interpretation of the law.

Broad Anti-Privacy Logic

In a section of the suit detailing how Aylo allegedly violated the age-check law, Indiana notes that last July, “an investigator employed by the Office of the Indiana Attorney General (‘OAG Investigator’) accessed Pornhub.com from Indiana using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with a Chicago, Illinois IP address.”

“Defendants have not implemented any reasonable form of age verification on its website Pornhub.com,” the suit states. It goes on to detail how Indiana investigators also accessed Brazzers.com, Faketaxi.com, Spicevids.com, and other adult websites using a VPN.

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The UK’s Plan to Put an Age Verification Chaperone in Every Pocket

UK officials are preparing to urge Apple and Google to redesign their operating systems so that every phone and computer sold in the country can automatically block nude imagery unless the user has proved they are an adult.

The proposal, part of the Home Office’s upcoming plan under the premise of combating violence against women and girls, would rely on technology built directly into devices, with software capable of scanning images locally to detect material.

Under the plan, as reported by FT, such scanning would be turned on by default. Anyone wanting to take, send, or open an explicit photo would first have to verify their age using a government-issued ID or a biometric check.

The goal, officials say, is to prevent children from being exposed to sexual material or drawn into exploitative exchanges online.

People briefed on the discussions said the Home Office had explored the possibility of making these tools a legal requirement but decided, for now, to rely on encouragement rather than legislation.

Even so, the expectation is that large manufacturers will come under intense pressure to comply.

The government’s approach reflects growing anxiety about how easily minors can access sexual content and how grooming can occur through everyday apps.

Instead of copying Australia’s decision to ban social media use for under-16s, British ministers have chosen to focus on controlling imagery itself.

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has praised technology firms that already filter content at the device level. She cited HMD Global, maker of Nokia phones, for embedding child-protection software called HarmBlock, created by UK-based SafeToNet, which automatically blocks explicit images from being viewed or shared.

Apple and Google have built smaller-scale systems of their own. Apple’s “Communication Safety” function scans photos in apps like Messages, AirDrop, and FaceTime and warns children when nudity is detected, but teens can ignore the alert.

Google’s Family Link and “sensitive content warnings” work similarly on Android, though they stop short of scanning across all apps. Both companies allow parents to apply restrictions, but neither has a universal filter that covers the entire operating system.

The Home Office wants to go further, calling for a system that would block any nude image unless an adult identity check has been passed.

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Democrat Congressman Gets Caught Staring at Very Naughty Images During Flight – Then Is Savagely Mocked After Offering a Silly Excuse for Why He Did 

A Democratic congressman was caught red-handed looking at inappropriate pictures while on a flight this week, forcing him to do damage control.

On Friday, footage emerged of Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) looking at scantily clad women on his iPad while on a plane. The images were first leaked by the account Dear White Staffers.

The account alleged that the images were pornographic.

“Why did California Congressman Brad Sherman feel it was appropriate to look at porn on his iPad during a flight today?” the account asks. “His district deserves better representation than this!!”

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‘Devout Christian’ Dem caught following prostitutes, OnlyFans models on social media

He was reading from the book of lurk.

Texas Democrat James Talarico, a self-professed “devout Christian,” has been following prostitutes and porn stars on social media, even exchanging messages with some of the busty women, a new bombshell report revealed.

The four-term House rep. follows at least 10 accounts belonging to OnlyFans models, adult film actresses or escorts.

The Texas Dem, who represents the Lone Star State’s 50th district, is running to unseat Sen. John Cornyn next year, and is competing in his state’s primary against ex-Rep. Colin Allred

Talarico, who is also a seminary student, liked multiple photos posted by at least one of the sexpots and even exchanged private messages with another flesh peddler who describes herself as a “bit of a glamour-puss,” the outlet found. 

“Thank you, Alice!” Talarico, 36, wrote to OnlyFans model Alice Greczyn after she tagged him in a story, according to a screenshot released by his campaign.

“Thank YOU! Really appreciate your work. It heartens me to see there are politicians like you,” Greczyn responded.

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Israeli OnlyFans model allegedly robbed older men in Los Angeles — she says she’s the victim of a conspiracy theory

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has issued a bulletin with a request from the public for alleged victims of an Israeli OnlyFans model to come forward.

The bulletin said Adva Lavie is suspected to be involved in a “series of residential burglaries” of the homes of older men in Los Angeles County.

She allegedly posed as a girlfriend or companion on social media apps and platforms, according to the bulletin posted on Facebook.

“They’re invited into the home, and then this person ends up burglarizing their home by stealing their personal belongings, and so that would kind of be the scenario we’re looking at,” Captain Dustin Carr said to KTTV-TV.

The sheriff’s department said Lavie had been arrested previously for a similar crime in a different jurisdiction but had been released from custody.

“We want to make sure that all victims are identified, they come forward and help prosecute this case,” Carr added. “We have some information that there may be other victims as well.”

Police said there may be as many as 10 victims in the alleged scheme.

However, when Lavie spoke to the Daily Mail via telephone about the allegations, she said she was the victim of a conspiracy before she hung up the phone.

“I think when you probably hang out with someone really powerful and someone really connected, if you piss them off, it’s problematic because they can really f**k you over,” she said.

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Whoops—Ohio Accidentally Excludes Most Major Porn Platforms From Anti-Porn Law

Remember when people used to say “Epic FAIL”? I’m sorry, but there’s no other way to describe Ohio’s new age verification law, which took effect on September 30.

A variation on a mandate that’s been sweeping U.S. statehouses, this law requires online platforms offering “material harmful to juveniles”—by which authorities mean porn—to check photo IDs or use “transactional data” (such as mortgage, education, and employment records) to verify that all visitors are adults.

But lawmakers have written the law in such a way that it excludes most major porn publishing platforms.

“This is why you don’t rush [age verification] bills into an omnibus,” commented the Free Speech Coalition’s Mike Stabile on Bluesky.

Ohio Republican lawmakers introduced a standalone age verification bill back in February, but it languished in a House committee. A similar bill introduced in 2024 also failed to advance out of committee.

The version that wound up passing this year did so as part of the state’s omnibus budget legislation (House Bill 96). This massive measure—more than 3,000 pages—includes a provision that any organization that “disseminates, provides, exhibits, or presents any material or performance that is obscene or harmful to juveniles on the internet” must verify that anyone attempting to view that material is at least 18 years old.

The bill also states that such organizations must “utilize a geofence system maintained and monitored by a licensed location-based technology provider to dynamically monitor the geolocation of persons.”

Existing Ohio law defines material harmful to juveniles as “any material or performance describing or representing nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse” that “appeals to the prurient interest of juveniles in sex,” is “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for juveniles,” and “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value for juveniles.”

Under the new law, online distributors of “material harmful to juveniles” that don’t comply with the age check requirement could face civil actions initiated by Ohio’s attorney general.

Supporters of the law portrayed it as a way to stop young Ohioans from being able to access online porn entirely. But the biggest purveyors of online porn—including Pornhub and similar platforms, which allow users to upload as well as view content—seem to be exempt from the law.

Among the organizations exempted from age verification requirements are providers of “an interactive computer service,” which is defined by Ohio lawmakers as having the same meaning as it does under federal law.

The federal law that defines “interactive computer service”—Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—says it “means any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides access to the Internet and such systems operated or services offered by libraries or educational institutions.”

That’s a bit of a mouthful, but we have decades of jurisprudence parsing that definition. And it basically means any platform where third parties can create accounts and can generate content, from social media sites to dating apps, message boards, classified ads, search engines, comment sections, and much more.

Platforms like Pornhub unambiguously fall within this category.

In fact, Pornhub is not blocking Ohio users as it has in most other states with age verification laws for online porn, because its parent company, Aylo, does not believe the law applies to it.

“As a provider of an ‘interactive computer service’ as defined under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it is our understanding that we are not subject to the obligations under section 1349.10 of the Ohio Revised Code regarding mandated age verification for the ‘interactive computer services’ we provide, such as Pornhub,” Aylo told Mashable.

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WI Republican Linked To Explicit Trans Account Was A Trump-Dissing RINO Who Pushed Leftist Election Rules

AWisconsin RINO who appears to have a penchant for “sexually explicit” material — and a connection to a trans porn site — has dropped out of the Badger State governor’s race. 

Whitefish Bay businessman Bill Berrien, who also had a past dalliance with the disastrously kinky election method known as ranked-choice voting, quit Friday following reports linking the candidate to several “sexually explicit accounts” on social media. He apparently connected to said accounts through the platform Medium, where he followed Jiz Lee, a “trans” sex peddler, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier this week. 

Berrien reportedly followed “publications” on Medium such as “Sexography,” which bills itself as “An inclusive place for people to talk about and explore #sexuality from all orientations, cultures, and perspectives.” 

‘Very Intellectually Curious’

Announcing his decision to leave the race, Berrien said his campaign was “gaining traction” until “the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this week two articles clearly targeted to force me out of the race.”

It’s all a misunderstanding, the former candidate claimed after his connections to many of the “sexually explicit social media accounts” were reportedly scrubbed. He’s a “very intellectually curious” guy. He said he listens to podcasts and is “constantly trying to take in new information, trying to learn something new.” To that end, Berrien said he follows more than 5,000 people across many platforms, subscribes to more than 100 newsletters, and has liked “perhaps 20,000 different articles or postings.” 

“I thought it was a strength to read very widely and show a broad intellectual interest,” Berrien wrote in his farewell. “[T]he media cherry-picked a handful of individuals and written articles that came across my feed that I then followed (without the faintest clue as to an author’s lifestyle choices!) 6 or 7 years ago …”

“Lee, the trans porn star … has been on Medium since 2015 and has 1,500 followers,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Lee only has one post on Medium from 2015 titled “Ethical Porn Starts When We Pay for It,” an article for which Berrien reportedly expressed support on the platform. Lee’s Medium page currently “directs people to [his] personal website,” which is updated “fairly regularly.”

Berrien’s campaign officials confirmed to the Journal Sentinel that the former candidate set up his Medium account in 2018 but used it “rarely” since 2019. However, his spectrum of learning apparently took Berrien to “Polyamory Today,” a forum that celebrates multiple sexual partners, presumably outside their primary relationship. 

On Tuesday, Lee, who “identifies” as nonbinary, posted an angry message on Bluesky above an article on Berrien. 

“It’s okay to follow trans porn stars. It’s okay to read articles about sex and relationships. What’s not okay is the hypocrisy of backing forceful legislation that restricts what people, trans and otherwise, can do with their own bodies. That is shameful,” scolded the porn pusher.

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New ‘Sextortion’ Spyware Snaps Webcam Photos Of People Watching Porn

If you’re indulging in adult content online, you might want to slap some electrical tape over your webcam pronto, according to a new report from WIRED. Cybersecurity experts at Proofpoint, a battle-tested firm, just dropped a bombshell detailing a nasty new strain of “infostealer” malware called Stealerium. This open-source digital menace can hijack your webcam to snap photos, snoop on your browser for NSFW keywords, and capture screenshots of anything spicy – all of which could be weaponized for blackmail and extortion schemes that’ll leave victims reeling.

“When it comes to infostealers, they typically are looking for whatever they can grab,” Proofpoint researcher Selena Larson told WIRED, exposing the chilling reality of this cyberthreat. “This adds another layer of privacy invasion and sensitive information that you definitely wouldn’t want in the hands of a particular hacker.”“It’s gross,” Larson fumed. “I hate it.”

WIRED has more:

More hands-on sextortion methods are a common blackmail tactic among cybercriminals, and scam campaigns in which hackers claim to have obtained webcam pics of victims looking at pornography have also plagued inboxes in recent years—including some that even try to bolster their credibility with pictures of the victim’s home pulled from Google Maps. But actual, automated webcam pics of users browsing porn is “pretty much unheard of,” says Proofpoint researcher Kyle Cucci. The only similar known example, he says, was a malware campaign that targeted French speaking users in 2019, discovered by the Slovakian cybersecurity firm ESET.

Larson laid bare the sinister tactics of sextortion spyware, which preys on individuals for profit while flying under the radar. “For a hacker, it’s not like you’re taking down a multimillion-dollar company that is going to make waves and have a lot of follow-on impacts,” she said. “They’re trying to monetize people one at a time. And maybe people who might be ashamed about reporting something like this.”

The malware’s creator, known as witchfindertr, identifies as a “malware analyst” based in London. To top it all off, Stealerium is freely available as an open-source tool on GitHub.

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Utah, FTC target adult websites over alleged child sex abuse material distribution

The State of Utah and Federal Trade Commission targeted the owner and operator of some of the world’s most popular adult content websites over alleged distribution of child sex abuse material (CSAM) and non-consensual material (NSM).

In proposed consent order, state and federal officials allege the company, Aylo, knew it had “hundreds of thousands” of CSAM and NSM videos on its websites. FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak and Utah Attorney General Derek Brown both noted that one of Aylo’s employees described one of their own sites as a “gold mine for rape content.”

“Utah stands ready to protect our children from exploitation wherever that exploitation takes place. The rise of the internet has unfortunately led to an increasing amount of instances of child exploitation,” said Brown. “It’s no longer limited to the dark web. Predators can find it more and more on regular sites.”

Despite knowing the alleged content on its site, the complaint alleges Aylo ignored “hundreds of red flags” and deceived consumers about the removal of the videos, allowing for consumers to unknowingly engage with illegal content.

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More Age Verification Fallout: Artist Blogs Blocked, Porn Data Leaked, Traffic Boosts for Noncompliant Sites

As more places around the world—including U.S. states—pass laws requiring age checks around the internet, we’re continuing to see a slew of unintended (but entirely predictable) consequences. The latest round includes some U.S. residents being blocked from a blogging platform, French folks in dangers of their porn viewing habits being leaked, and porn websites that violate the law in the U.K. being rewarded with big boosts in web traffic.

Let’s start closest to home.

Another website is blocking access to Mississippi residents in response to the state’s age verification and online harm prevention law taking effect.

We’ve already seen some fallout from this law, including the social media platform Bluesky beginning to block Mississippi residents.

Now, Dreamwidth Studios—a blogging platform meant for artists (and one of the parties represented by tech trade group NetChoice in a challenge to the Mississippi law)—is also blocking access for people in Mississippi, as well as preventing minors in Tennessee from opening new accounts.

“People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we’ll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential,” Dreamwidth says on its website.

The company announced its new Mississippi policy on August 26, saying, “Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don’t want to do this.” But “the Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who’s under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users’ parents to allow them to finish creating an account.””

Dreamwidth goes on:

[The Mississippi law] also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn’t like it — which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn’t like, you’re absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don’t want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can’t: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity.”

Mississippi users of Dreamwidth aren’t the only ones with restricted access. The platform will also “prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk,” it said. “The judge in our challenge to Tennessee’s social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds,” Dreamwidth posted. “The Tennessee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it’s still a risk to us.”

Dreamwidth’s moves further highlight how age verification laws like the ones enacted by Mississippi and Tennessee will come down harder on small and niche platforms than on big tech companies.

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