[HN Gopher] Searches for VPN Soar in Utah Amidst Pornhub Blockage ___________________________________________________________________ Searches for VPN Soar in Utah Amidst Pornhub Blockage Author : freedomben Score : 141 points Date : 2023-05-03 20:35 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.culturalcurrents.institute) (TXT) w3m dump (www.culturalcurrents.institute) | wepple wrote: | What is the device based authentication the PH page mentions? | | I'm a little scared to search for it whilst in a public space | banana_giraffe wrote: | It's a call out in the law that allows access to such material | if authenticated with a Mobile driver's license, aka mDL ( | https://dld.utah.gov/utahmdl/ ), aka ISO 18013-5. | wcoenen wrote: | I'm not seeing any such trend at trends.google.com: | | https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US-UT&q=VPN&hl=... | [deleted] | Waterluvian wrote: | Ah I found it. Adjust query to a much shorter window. | [deleted] | mirekrusin wrote: | past 7 days | danielodievich wrote: | I have a favorite Utah story that is I think appropriate here. | Many years ago as a young and green consultant I was sent to Salt | Lake to help with some ASP.NET/C# app with Utah Department of | Liquor. I was told to look for the tallest building in SLC and | the warehouse did not disappoint, it was huge (well, SLC is | really flat and squat too). They showed me the warehouse full of | really fancy robotic stuff (all made in Utah, and they were | correct to be proud of it). We got to work looking over the code | of the app, and along the way they learn that I am originally | from USSR/Russia. "Oh" the devs say, "do you want to see our | Russia module"? I am of course intrigued, and discover that | during the process of organization of 2002 SLC winter Olympics | (Mitt Romney's baby/rise to prominence), there was a huge | diplomatic incident. The rules of State of UT at the time limit | the number of bottles sold to any one in a given transaction, and | the Russian delegation was refusing to come to Utah because they | would not be allowed to buy as much liquor (likely vodka) as they | wanted to. This got escalated to the highest levels of State | department, and the intrepid UT legislature found a way! They | [very quickly] passed the law that any person with Russian | citizenship could buy whatever the heck they want in any amount. | Now it was up to the poor saps in the UT Dept. of Liquor to | implement it. But you couldn't just rely on people showing | passport! No, the software team feverishly coded up the "Russian | Module" that implemented passport number validation, making sure | that if you did show a red passport with double-headed eagle, its | number was valid. There was serious collaboration on the | numbering schemes and maybe even some proto API validation to the | Russian Federation servers. Yeah, legit module. Used for 2 weeks, | and then decommissioned as the law sunset very rapidly. | | So, where there is a will, there is a way. And a VPN. | cpursley wrote: | Funny story if true. | | But honestly, the whole "Russian vodka bears blat" stuff is | disrespectful (and wrong). Russians actually prefer whiskey & | brandy!! | | Also, Russia is not even in the top 15 countries in terms of | alcohol consumption. Ukraine is higher, Finland is higher, | Ireland is higher. | | But the worst offender: Russian vodka is not made of potatoes!! | They use grains. It's actually the Polish who use potatoes. | juujian wrote: | The divergence could be because plenty of Russians distill | their own liquor | epolanski wrote: | > Also, Russia is not even in the top 15 countries in terms | of alcohol consumption | | That depends on which stats you take and for which country. | | But Russians are always among the top in the world, | especially males. | | Also don't forget in Russia muslims make 14% of the | population which lowers the nation averages a lot. | LastTrain wrote: | Also, there is absolutely nothing "flat" about Salt Lake | City. | cobaltoxide wrote: | It's surrounded by mountains, but the urban part of the | city is indeed very flat. | jjulius wrote: | Huh? The city itself is really flat - I've been through it, | _and_ a quick image search confirms as much. There are | mountains nearby, but saying "there is _absolutely | nothing_ 'flat'" about it is pretty disingenuous. | cobaltoxide wrote: | Many sources put Russia in the top five for incidence of | alcoholism, and the life expectancy of Russian men is | famously diminished due to their high intake of alcohol. The | life expectancy of Russian women is 13 years longer than for | men. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_consumption_in_Russia | | "A recent study blamed alcohol for more than half the deaths | (52%) among Russians aged 15 to 54 from 1990 to 2001.[14] For | the same demographic, this compares to 4% of deaths for the | rest of the world." | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Russia#Alcohol_consu. | .. | | I don't think it's just a stereotype. | hunter2_ wrote: | There's a great Russian restaurant in NYC known for their | infused vodkas, and this part of their website sheds some | light on the history of vodka in that region: | https://www.russiansamovar.com/vodka/ | | Not doubting you in the slightest, just adding some flavor. | maximinus_thrax wrote: | Maybe not in alcohol consumption. But in alcoholism, Russia | takes an honorable second place after Hungary: | https://worldpopulationreview.com/country- | rankings/alcoholis... | cobaltoxide wrote: | I googled to try to find some reference to this alleged law, | but found nothing. | seydor wrote: | So this was all a plot of the VPN industry? | | Educating people how to use VPN is a very double-edged sword, | because people will also learn that they no longer need to pay | Netflix et al. | themitigating wrote: | No, it's Christian facism or were you joking? | notfried wrote: | In March, why was Virginia the highest state in the U.S. for | searches for VPN, with a score higher than Washington, California | and New York, per the article? | scooter7364 wrote: | [flagged] | boc wrote: | Government employees and contractors | m463 wrote: | spies doing remote work | kibwen wrote: | CIA operatives in Langley inflating the numbers, clearly. | JumpCrisscross wrote: | > _CIA operatives in Langley inflating the numbers, clearly_ | | This was my first thought, too. But these aren't data for VPN | usage. Just searches. Why would Langley have a bunch of | people Googling VPNs in March? | asdff wrote: | You got to see if there are any new vpn companies you | haven't backdoored yet every now and then | yftsui wrote: | My hypothesis: people who are already using VPN egress | traffic in IAD (which has the largest AWS region), thus the | results based on IP address is skewed by people who | actually live in other countries or maybe even continents. | anonymouscaller wrote: | Wouldn't int'l users choose the location closest to them? | If you're in China for instance you're probably going to | be using SIN or TPE. Besides, most VPN providers avoid | Amazon and use colo providers that give much better deals | on bandwidth. | paxys wrote: | "How do I get this damn VPN to work" | kibwen wrote: | I appear not to have made my sarcasm obvious enough. :P I | was amused by the thought of CIA agents being told that | they need a VPN installed and so downloading the first | result on Google. | Juicyy wrote: | lmao too realistic /s | MuffinFlavored wrote: | Do we think VPNs will ever be banned in a state like Utah? | detaro wrote: | The "TikTok ban" draft (RESTRICT Act) is providing a template | on federal level according to various comments on that. | MuffinFlavored wrote: | Is the "TikTok ban" draft (RESTRICT Act) for | consumers/regular people or only government personnel? | | Aka, are they really going to ban TikTok for regular people | or just make it so govenment personnel can't install TikTok | on their device? aka, only ban TikTok for government people | and not regular people | smolder wrote: | It doesn't appear to have much to do with TikTok at all, | from what I saw. It looks more like a regular old power | grab by the federal government over tech generally, moving | us towards censorship and _overt_ surveillance and | punishing circumvention. | seanp2k2 wrote: | I'm 100% sure that no one who works for the government | knows how to acquire and operate a separate smartphone | either /s | beepbooptheory wrote: | Its for everyone, not just government personnel. | | https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate- | bill/686... | | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35369075 | detaro wrote: | Hopefully the thing is going to fail and they are not going | to do anything. But yes, it provides for banning | government-choosen foreign sites entirely, with heavy | penalties for assisting in circumventing blocks. (Although | I guess VPN services could avoid it by filtering their | users traffic themselves) | JumpCrisscross wrote: | > _it provides for banning government-choosen foreign | sites entirely, with heavy penalties for assisting in | circumventing blocks_ | | I recently heard the argument that TikTok is a media | control issue. Rupert Murdoch famously had to become an | American to buy Fox. Applying that precedent seems | cleaner than the RESTRICT Act. | anigbrowl wrote: | I'm generally pro-migration but in Murdoch's case I don't | think it worked out well for his new neighbors. | swamp40 wrote: | Don't you just have to move the VPN offshore? China could | even spin up their own VPN companies. | JumpCrisscross wrote: | > _Don 't you just have to move the VPN offshore_ | | Payment would still be a problem. | throwaway742 wrote: | I pay for my VPN with cryptocurrency. | ignoramous wrote: | That will accelerate the coming of on-device AI generated porn | apps. | olliej wrote: | The many (one would hope most?) tech and tech-adjacent | businesses, the federal government, etc all require VPNs, so it | would be hard to see how "ban VPNs for this already banned | thing" would even work. | paxys wrote: | Probably not, but only because it would be too technologically | complex for them to do. VPN companies don't operate in their | jurisdiction and don't care about Utah law. | struanr wrote: | I feel like a VPN ban might be difficult to enforce due to | corporate usage of the same technology | [deleted] | freedomben wrote: | I doubt they try to ban them, but I could absolutely see them | push an age verification requirement for "personal" VPNs that | allow you to get an out-of-state IP address since it | "illegally circumvents state laws". So you can have a VPN, | but if you are in Utah the exit node must also be in Utah. | Corporate VPNs wouldn't be a problem legally because they | already verify your identify for state tax purposes so | there's nothing more for corporate to do. | | Bonus: while your every access to porn is being logged for | the state, they can log your VPN use too just in case there | is anything relevant for law enforcement to care about. | BeFlatXIII wrote: | How would a law like that be enforced if none of the VPN's | personnel or physical assets are in Utah or if they're | entirely outside the US? | JumpCrisscross wrote: | > _I could absolutely see them push an age verification | requirement for "personal" VPNs that allow you to get an | out-of-state IP address_ | | The VPN provider knows the user is in Utah and connecting | to Pornhub, so there might be an argument for knowingly | facilitating circumvention. No clue if that's something | that they can prosecute, though. I'd be de-nexussing Utah | were I running a VPN company. | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: | A few years ago, Walmart stopped stocking (some) beer in Utah | because it was too difficult for them to bother getting the | 3.2% alcohol by weight beer which had been the limit in Utah at | the time[0]. Ultimately Utah's legislature decided to change | the 3.2% restriction. I suspect this will go that way; more | services will just say that they don't need to serve that | population and move on. There will be a lot of people saying | they like using their VPN _totally because it keeps me private | online_ and VPNs will just be normalized. | | [0] https://www.fox13now.com/2018/12/11/walmart-joins-the- | push-f... | freedomben wrote: | It will certainly be interesting to see. Utah is an | interesting case because _generally_ speaking high | percentages of the population will praise and promote | "freedom" and "liberty." Of course with humans often | stated/conscious beliefs and actions are often disjointed, | but there's still an interesting angle there where the state | is a lot more limited on what it can do in the enforcement | arena before people start pushing back. | | That said though, porn access in Utah would be a hard one for | the average person to stand up for because the social | pressure there is immense (speaking from experience here). | The dominant religion teaches that "free agency" is an | important and indeed _essential_ aspect of our lives. We are | here on Earth to grow and develop and learn to make good | (i.e. obedient to God) choices. They even believe that a War | in Heaven happened that split the masses because Satan (aka | the Devil) wanted to force people to be righteous, but Jesus | ' plan was to give them choice. You would think they'd be a | bunch of libertarians then, but no they clearly believe that | God shouldn't force you to be righteous, but the _state_ | should. Furthermore God has told their prophets that things | like alcohol, marijuana, porn, are wicked and sinful. | Reducing or eliminating your access to them is for your own | good (and the good of "society") and is therefore justified. | I've tried pointing out that when it comes to enforcing your | morals on others it can literally be taken to China-level | authoritarianism with the same justication of "good for | society," but that never seems to get anywhere. | deet wrote: | For those who are wondering, none of these things are | "banned" though. | | Drive around Salt Lake County, especially the city itself, | and you'll see plenty of bars, signs offering cannabis | medical cards, and even a strip club here or there. And | some not bad breweries. | | The state just seems to take the approach of waiting for | sufficient demand for such things, then slowly adjusting to | allow more, rather that just "have at it" for anything. | | And of course, like everything in America, what the | government really follows is the money -- they listen to | business community demands, like allowing and increased | number of bars where tourism and the local population | demands, like at ski resorts, etc. Agreed that porn could | be different though, since there's probably not a local | business group advocating for preserving porn access | isk517 wrote: | Ok, now you have me thinking about local people that | would stand to financially benefit from internet porn | being banned. Along the lines of does a internet porn ban | drive more people to visiting strip clubs, etc. | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: | This comment makes me glad that most of my interactions | with Mormons have been from the other side of the fence, so | to speak. I grew up in SLC suburbs and currently live in | South Salt Lake but I was Methodist growing up, never LDS. | So there was never really anybody close to me who was | Mormon except until the age by which they'd learned not to | try to defend their beliefs to non-Mormons. | | To this point: "porn access in Utah would be a hard one for | the average person to stand up for". I suspect that the | arguments will be for online privacy even if the real | intention is for porn access. But it's kinda more like you | said: it will certainly be interesting to see. | spacebanana7 wrote: | Banning VPNs would be very difficult for a US state. | | In China VPN restrictions are somewhat effective because of | compliance from consumer platforms, ISPs and cloud service | providers all operating inside a largely isolated pocket of the | internet. | | If any of those stakeholders refused to play along or could | operate outside of enforcement range then the VPN ban would | fail. | | A ban isn't truly impossible, especially with support from | courts and the federal government, but I think it's similar to | the difficulty level of banning pirated content. | booleandilemma wrote: | What kinds of porn do Mormons like? | walrus01 wrote: | Heterosexual missionary position in a dark room under a blanket | between married couples for the purposes of procreation only | themitigating wrote: | Sounds like my marriage... | 0zemp2c wrote: | [flagged] | reducesuffering wrote: | Soaking | knicholes wrote: | There's a site that caters exactly to Mormon-themed porn, and | having been a "Mormon," or a "member of the Church of Jesus | Christ of Latter-Day Saints" for a couple decades, I can vouch | that it is truly hilarious. Here's some stats per state, in | case you were wondering about any others: | | https://wour.com/nsfw-pornhub-reveals-most-popular-searches-... | nashashmi wrote: | It is unbelievable the amount of targeted advertising they do | to religious groups to somehow dislodge them from their | previous strictness. Mormons are not alone. | scooter7364 wrote: | [flagged] | andrewclunn wrote: | Conversely, one could set their VPN to Utah as a quick child | protective measure | xutopia wrote: | I'm just so surprised by how bad politics has become in the USA. | It's like they want to have charia law... or Christian law as it | were. | kypro wrote: | There's loads of laws about what permissible sexual behaviour | is though? | | This is only unusual in the sense that generally Western | countries are in favour of porn. I think you could make a good | argument against the universal availably of porn given its | negative effects on the individuals that engage in it and on | society as a whole - similar to arguments against drug use or | prostitution. | | I'm not saying I'm in favour of banning porn or anything, just | that where we draw the line on what's permissible behaviour | between consenting adults seems largely arbitrary and mostly | down to cultural factors rather than a fundamental analysis of | harm. | Fauntleroy wrote: | Utah is a remarkably special part of the US, in this regard. | asdff wrote: | There's the landed elite ski crowd in Utah, but I guess they | just fly into their timeshare in park city for 5 days a year | and don't much care what happens outside that idyllic | vacation. | a-user-you-like wrote: | [flagged] | themitigating wrote: | How does this help people being exploited? Isn't that already | illegal? | loeg wrote: | The Utah law doesn't ban porn production. | sophacles wrote: | That's a lot of unbacked claims. | | How is the age verification an attempt to stop an industry? | | Where is it stated that that's the goal? | | How did you decide that most porn workers were sexually | abused as children? | jp57 wrote: | This two-post thread is a microcosm of American politics on | all issues. | buffington wrote: | I can't imagine why, with claims this juicy, you wouldn't | share your sources. I'd recommend showing the data, or be | prepared to defend these ideas without it. | [deleted] | throw_m239339 wrote: | > I'm just so surprised by how bad politics has become in the | USA. It's like they want to have charia law... or Christian law | as it were. | | The USA are diverse and laws greatly vary from state to state. | Talking about "US politics" when a single state does something | is absurd. | | Furthermore, many European countries like France are about do | the same thing with online porn, no later than this year, are | you also going to accuse France of wanting to have "charia | law"? That's preposterous. France couldn't be further from a | very religious country. | | I'm not saying these kind of laws are efficient at stopping | minors from watching online porn, I'm just saying that your | characterization of USA as a country is wrong. | themitigating wrote: | Roe v Wade is a good country wide indicator. Trump | specifically said he would appoint judges to overturn it | during one of the debates. | | The majority voted for him. | ekidd wrote: | > The majority voted for him. | | Just to be precise, the popular vote was 62,984,828 to | 65,853,514 in favor of Clinton, with roughly 60% turnout. | The majority did not vote for Trump. | | But that doesn't matter in US presidental elections. | downWidOutaFite wrote: | The majority did not vote for him. The majority of the | "electoral college" did. 2.8 million more people voted for | Hillary than Trump. | gleenn wrote: | I think that in general, as an citizen here that most people | definitely think about laws as generally similar across | states with the odd things like liquor laws frequently | standing out. The current push towards emphasizing state's | rights is a slippery slope the conservatives have been | abusing quite handily like they did with the new ban on | abortion. The minute they got invalidated Roe v. Wade, | suddenly it immediately swung towards a federal ban on | abortion. States rights are important but again, as a | citizen, you know the couple things your neighbor state does | differently but only recently has this felt like it split so | far. | callalex wrote: | I don't want to put words in your mouth so please correct me, | but are you asserting that laws restricting porn are not | religiously motivated? | | Also o/t but France might not be the best example to use of | healthy politics that represent the will of the people right | now... | kelipso wrote: | You saying laws restricting prostitution is religiously | motivated? Laws restricting gambling? Drugs? | | Where's the line between religious motivation and morality? | | Just because you don't like the law, you accuse the | proponents of the law of being religiously motivated. | | When you like the law, it will be because of blah blah blah | morality of course. | kelipso wrote: | Playing the world's smallest violin for the perverts in Utah who | now have to use a VPN... | esotericimpl wrote: | [dead] | bigmattystyles wrote: | Is the law written such that the vpn is liable now or is it | treated like the ISP? | mindslight wrote: | This is fantastic news! Thank you government of Utah! Your | authoritarian grandstanding isn't likely to do much over the long | term, given basic American values like freedom of expression. But | in the meantime it will encourage people to get educated on basic | ways of evading censorship, while simultaneously discouraging | other sites from hassling visitors based on IP address. | badrabbit wrote: | This is such an HN comment. Democratically elected politicians | enact laws that reflect the conservative views of their voters | and that is totalitarian because they are controlling every | aspect of government centrally with all decisions made my | unelected leaders? No, because you disagree with it, that's it. | | You know, I dislike both liberalism and conservatism but in the | US specifically, I feel like there is a particular | misunderstanding with liberally minded people about what the US | is supposed to be. If your fundamental human rights or other | protected rights are violated I get it, but watching porn is | not a right if any kind, states can restrict any aspect of your | life that isn't protected as a right. There is already a | restriction on adult material that involved minors or unwilling | participants, this simply expands it to all people, and there | is plenty of research and reasoning that indicates porn is | harmful to everyone, period! Personally, I find it more | reasonable if you argued cigarettes are healthy compared to | what porn does to your mind and therefore life. The whole point | of a federal union is you move to other states when you don't | like the laws, and everybody gets to exist with the most ideal | liberty vs restriction ratio. | | For the "land doesn't vote" people who think the electoral | college should be abolished? this is exactly why it exists, so | crazy states line utah or missisipi don't have to leave the | union. I am far from a secessionist but the electoral college | was literally a critical component of the contract that states | agreed to when joining the union. You need to understand that | short of a global nuclear war, there are few things that are | worse for humanity as a whole (even more so for americans) than | a civil conflict between american states. | | The whole point of post here is that so long as these crazy | state laws reflect the views of those who live there and | existing (not future) rights of protected individuals are not | violated, drop the exaggeration and tolerate them as you | vehemently disagree with them. | dgacmu wrote: | > but watching porn is not a right if any kind | | That's not really true, depending on how you define "porn". | There are very strong first amendment rights around producing | and consuming all sorts of potentially objectionable content: | | https://reason.com/2019/10/04/pornography-is-protected-by- | th... | | Is it a "fundamental human right?" Dunno, I'm not the arbiter | of that. But the US supreme court has repeatedly ruled that | it is a constitutional right to be able to do so free of | government interference. That doesn't mean you're guaranteed | to have access to it - it's a free market and others 1st | amendment rights allow them to choose what they provide. But | the government can't stop you, and that's a right. | nashashmi wrote: | How do you define which is what? | | "I know it when I see it." -- US Supreme Court | anigbrowl wrote: | _watching porn is not a right if any kind_ | | While I have little interest in porn, I have a right to | publish it under the first amendment and that necessarily | includes a right to view it. | | _states can restrict any aspect of your life that isn 't | protected as a right_ | | And I can reject those restrictions insofar as my own person | is concerned. There's a stronger argument for states | mediating conflicts of interests between persons (eg police | existing because not everyone is able to provide their own | security) but your interpretation is a recipe for overreach. | seanp2k2 wrote: | This should be thrown out legally because "Congress shall | make no law respecting an establishment of religion.". | | It's religion as law disguised as "But think of the | children!" as usual. | justrealist wrote: | Judeo-Christian doctrine also has prohibitions against | theft and murder. Should we throw those out? | | There's an overlap between secular and religious | prohibitions, and there's no easy answer as to which rules | are "religious" -- you're just reflecting what's in your | head as "obviously secular" and "obviously religious", and | that's not how all other (secular) people view the world. | jiggyjace wrote: | There's nothing happening in Utah that is establishing a | theocracy that requires you must attend and worship a | certain religion. | nashashmi wrote: | It's civility as law. And religion has it in similar | fashion. | erenyeager wrote: | It's not favoring a particular religion, and even non | religious people (including for ex some radical feminists | you may find) can unite against pornography propagation. | It's also not just about think of the children, but any | society that cares for people will want to limit negative | influences on the most vulnerable and those growing up who | will become the future adults. | scarface74 wrote: | > but any society that cares for people will want to | limit negative influences on the most vulnerable | | I bet these same folks would be up in an uproar if you | mentioned gun control which have a lot more negative | influences than seeing boobies... | ModernMech wrote: | > It's also not just about think of the children, but any | society that cares for people will want to limit negative | influences on the most vulnerable and those growing up | who will become the future adults. | | And yet that same society will do nothing to stop the | number one cause of death in children: gun violence. One | has to ask why? | hodgesrm wrote: | Thanks for an unusually clear exposition of how things can | and do work in a functioning, federated system of democracy. | scarface74 wrote: | > This is such an HN comment. Democratically elected | politicians enact laws that reflect the conservative views of | their voters and that is totalitarian because they are | controlling every aspect of government centrally with all | decisions made my unelected leaders? No, because you disagree | with it, that's it. | | Three points. | | The will of the majority should never limit the desires of | the minority as long as it doesn't impinge on someone else. | Would you use the same justification for laws against | miscegenation and "sodomy" (ie non heterosexual sex) because | that's what the "conservative lawmakers" wanted"? Why the | carve out against "protected individuals"? All of our rights | should be protected against religious fundamentalism. Freedom | of religion also should be freedom from religion. | | We see all across the United States even in conservative | states that when abortion rights are put on the ballot they | are consistently passing even against the will of the | legislation. | | I can assure you as a resident of Florida and more | specifically Orlando, the number of people who want hundreds | of thousands of dollars and energy wasted going after "woke | Disney" is small - yet the legislation is passing laws and | spending money left and right. | yegor wrote: | NordVPN is probably raking it in right now with the amount of BS | marketing that they do.... | rpastuszak wrote: | NordVPN actually inspired me to work on my current personal | project: a "human" ad blocker for sponsored content on Youtube: | https://github.com/paprikka/butter | | I'll push a more stable version later this week. Feel free to | spam me via the email in my profile desc if you have any | feedback or ideas. | yegor wrote: | How does it work? I personally use this one | https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock- | for-y... | | It requires users to provide timestamps for "sponsored by" | content, so the player skips over it. | jonas-w wrote: | Sponsorblock is also integrated into piped for example | https://piped.video/ | graypegg wrote: | Really gives some insight to why VPN companies have been | fighting for mindshare the past few years. Just waiting for a | case like this to pop up and be the first service people think | of. | millzlane wrote: | It worked for https://greenhealthdocs.com/ in Maryland. They | advertised heavily before legalization framework was in | place. | | People didn't know they just needed to fill out a state form | that's approved automatically pay $50 to the state, and pay a | small fee $75-$80 to a certified doctor, dentist, nurse, or | midwife for a cannabis recommendation. | | Instead, they greenhealth charges 200 bucks to people. | loeg wrote: | $200 vs $130, billed by one provider instead of several, | and you can figure out how to do it via the internet | seems... fine? | judge2020 wrote: | The ROI on VPNs with even a little marketing is huge and you | don't need tons of networking people to scale. | yegor wrote: | That's not true. Ask me how I know. :) | mardifoufs wrote: | Is it BS in this case though? VPNs are the best tool in this | scenario, and when you want to avoid geoblocking in general. | TedDoesntTalk wrote: | FoxyProxy gives each user a dedicated server for the same | price as NordVPN shared servers. | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: | Can that dedicated server magically be in completely | different locations in seconds at the press of a button? | | It's not like vpn providers are renting out _one_ shared | server. Being able to pick between countries is a key | feature. Shared servers might actually be an advantage too. | If your vpn is on a unique IP, it 's probably easier to | deanonymise you from bulk data. | mastazi wrote: | And what is the average user supposed to do with it? I | doubt that most people are even aware that you can ssh into | a server and configure it for tunnelling your internet | traffic, let alone knowing how to do that. | JeremyBanks wrote: | [dead] | ubermonkey wrote: | Given that VPN services typically require a credit card, and | credit cards are unlikely to be available to most minors -- or at | least provide plausible deniability to the providers -- this is | probably 100% okay with the porn-banning Utahns. | UncleOxidant wrote: | The Opera browser has a free VPN built-in. It would be | interesting to see data on Opera and Tor browser downloads | there in the last week. | seanw444 wrote: | They don't though. A lot of VPN services operate for free. A | lot of my classmates in high school used free VPNs to bypass | the school internet filters. | | I wonder how their business continues to operate if their | product is free... | seydor wrote: | Well there is only one solution: they should require that all | porn be paid-for by credit card. Utah will make PH rich to | protect their boys | paulpauper wrote: | I used to use VPNs. What a waste of money. Nothing but captchas, | broken functionality, slowness, etc. It's obvious that at least | some VPNs use low trust IPs and are blocked and filtered. You are | better off just getting an E2 instance | aqfamnzc wrote: | That's not been my experience. I run an always-on VPN on my | laptop and phone and never have issues. What service did you | try? | paxys wrote: | You need to find a better provider. I have regularly used | Private Internet Access and Torguard and have never had this | experience with either. | LinuxBender wrote: | Mirror [1] | | [1] - https://archive.is/a9wlZ | erenyeager wrote: | Actually I think this is really good that we see more regulation | around access to pornography, because many damaging aspects of it | have been raised more in public awareness and these companies | have made a lot of money off of addicting populations from a | young age with harmful content without paying for the | consequences. Social media companies should be included also, | considering how many children and teens are on social media | platforms looking for sexual activity with adults. | atleastoptimal wrote: | The issue is porn is a natural addiction. Young people, | especially young men will always be horny and seek out porn. | The only deterrents to it are religious and cultural shaming. | Is the solution to regulate porn with "education" so people | know what healthy use is or not? Because while it seems | reasonable to provide guidelines, 99% of people will ignore | them. | erenyeager wrote: | Sometimes what seems natural is because the water was | poisoned for so long. Yes, it is natural to have sexual | desire, but is unfettered spread of porn with a few taps | easily accessible at any age really something we should | accept? And young men need a lot of support, in my anecdotal | experience it is too easy for so many to fall down negative | paths with little support network to prevent it. | | Now with AI it is even more dangerous, we have deepfakes (see | recent Canada news on deepfakes of children), and the spread | of more isolation and addiction with the internet "drugs" | compared to genuine in person interactions with friends and | family. | | Technology like smartphones helped us in many ways but also | they became a new way to suffer and amplified some existing | problems. Shouldn't we regulate the worst of it? | | I found more dangerous than porn is the ability to | communicate with random adults online as a child, with often | sexual endings. I remember growing up as a teen, there were | sites like Omegle and then chat apps like kik and Snapchat | and then Reddit, all these places had avenues for teens and | children to communicate and swap pictures with adults, etc. | with little to no regulation or consequences for these | companies. | juve1996 wrote: | Regulations should be reserved for the worst problems. Porn | consumption should be looked at, but not sure why we can | not just empower parents to do their jobs, just like we | empower them to control what movies they let their children | watch on TV? | | You see with drug abuse that regulations do little to solve | the actual problems. | erenyeager wrote: | Juul was pretty swiftly dealt with once their effects on | children was noticed. Also, for parents the modern world | is very difficult, there are so many influences and | pressure on your children and they occupy an increasingly | smaller role in influencing children these days. There | needs to be society and government policy level | regulations to help, individual parents enacting harsh | rules will not end well in a society where advertisers | are very advanced. | atleastoptimal wrote: | I feel like use of porn is a symptom of isolation and lack | of education/support structures. Fix those and people will | be less vulnerable and addicted. | | The problem is loneliness is stigmatized and porn creates a | "safe haven" where people don't have to confront the | challenging dullness and angst of their life. Kurt Vonnegut | once said: "What do my science fiction stories have in | common with pornography? Fantasies of an impossibly | hospitable world, I'm told." | | What is the solution, to just do what Utah and sexually | repressed countries do, "Sorry no porn for you, it's in | your best interest, I'm sure you will stop wanting it if we | arbitrarily restrict it". It's not a solution and makes | people go further "down the rabbit hole" to scratch that | itch. | | Here's a simple way to look at it: | | This is a map of where pornography is illegal or restricted | in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_ | India#/media/Fi... | | Do attitudes towards pornography scale with healthy | societal sexual attitudes? Judging by the map I don't | suppose so. | nashashmi wrote: | Absolutely agree about this. the ways in which this industry | tries to catch your eyes and tries to grab your attention is | both outrageous and evil. yes, every advertising network tries | to do that, but there is no advertisement that leads to more | harm than this one, and the more frequently they can be | stopped, The healthier society will be. | ethbr0 wrote: | > _Social media companies should be included also, considering | how many children and teens are on social media platforms | looking for sexual activity with adults._ | | No considering. | | "Social media companies should be included also." | | Period. Because in their current form and business model | they're harmful to pre-adults. | formerly_proven wrote: | On the latest Jonathan Haidt discussion here a parent posted | a lengthy rebuttal about someone pointing out the various | resources found on YT. Their a-yo and b-yo sons only watch | utter trash, Mr. Beast, videogames, 10 minute ads, all that | stuff, and they watch it for hours on end. What a terrible | platform. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. I only do | wonder who has custody of their kids, who handed them the | iPads, who gives them internet access, and who watches them | watch trash all day, day in and day out? | George83728 wrote: | > _a-yo and b-yo sons_ | | What does this mean? | themitigating wrote: | Prove damage | seydor wrote: | people will still be making porn for free if commercial | activity is banned. always have been. It's likely that people | watch more porn-hours on twitter than on PH. Social media | competition treadmill otoh is unhealthy AF | NikolaNovak wrote: | I don't understand pornhubs statement. What is device based | authentication and why is it the best? | commandlinefan wrote: | Somewhat ironic that they're going to be paying for the VPN (on | top of already paying the ISP) while still not actually paying | for the content itself. | smolder wrote: | Paying for porn would support the industry! That would be | immoral! Just looking is okay, though. | blacksmith_tb wrote: | Ah yes, in fact looking for free costs the providers | something, so it's clearly an ongoing campaign to drive them | out of business, hallelujah. | barbazoo wrote: | How do you know that they aren't? | zsz wrote: | Given how well the porn industry does regardless of the rest of | the economy, it would be interesting to see how they would do | if a sizeable portion of "users" actually paid for their | services. | | Enterprising individuals might consider next how the same | industry could counterintuitively profit from such legislation, | by starting their own VPN service (which would, for example, | not suffer from similar dropouts, connection resets, bandwidth | related issues, etc. as competing services). I guess it would | finally put to rest the question we've all been asking | ourselves all along: are people using VPN services primarily to | hide their piracy-related activities, or has it been mostly to | hide their sexual fetishes? ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-05-03 23:00 UTC)