Age verification laws are killing web traffic
With the UK having recently brought the Online Safety Act into force, age verification laws are having a huge effect on traffic to web sites. Predictably, sites which comply with age verification requirements have noticed a marked drop-off in visitor numbers, while the opposite is true for non-compliant sites.
In the UK, it is – currently – only pornographic sites that are supposed to implement age verification (although other sites are supposed to take action to prevent minors from accessing adult material as well). Working via a combination of facial scans and documentation checks, the impact of the law has been felt very quickly.
Pornhub Premium is now free globally so you can enjoy self-isolating from coronavirus
With a huge proportion of the world now in lockdown as governments take steps to stop the spread of coronavirus, millions of people are seeking ways to entertain themselves at home... and Pornhub has come up with a solution.
Having previously made its premium services available for free in Italy, Spain and France, the site says that it wants to "lend a hand". Looking to give people "an enjoyable way to pass the time", Pornhub Premium is now available to everyone around the world for free... for a while, at least.
Tumblr turns family-friendly and bans ALL adult content
Tumblr has announced that it is to introduce a ban on all adult content across the platform in a major reversal of policy. The site has long been home to all manner of explicit content, and this lack of censorship is part of the reason for Tumblr's popularity.
The site says that, as of December 17, "adult content will not be allowed on Tumblr, regardless of how old you are". The announcement was made in the Tumblr Help Center, and it comes as the company aims to appeal to a wider age range.
If you send nudes to Facebook for revenge porn protection, the photos will be checked by humans
Facebook caused more than a little eye-rolling with its anti-revenge porn program which requires users to upload the naked images of themselves that they would like to protect. It had been assumed that the entire process would be automated, making use purely of algorithms to analyze images and protect privacy. This assumption was wrong.
Facebook says that in actual fact an employee -- an actual human being -- will have to review the nude images that are sent in.
PornHub users hit by sustained, targeted malvertising campaign
Millions of PornHub users in the US, UK, Canada and Australia were targeted by a malicious advertising campaign lasting for more than a year. The malvertising attack tried to trick users of the world's most popular porn site into installing fake browser updates.
Security researchers from Proofpoint found that PornHub users had been exposed to Kovter ad fraud malware for over a year. The KovCoreG group is believed to be responsible for distributing the Kovter ad fraud malware, so if you've visited PornHub recently, it might be a good idea to check your system for signs of infection.
Plans for age checks on porn sites highlight the UK government's failure to understand the web
If there's anything that the UK government has demonstrated in recent years it is that it not only wants to try to take control of the web, but it also fails to understand the web. These two facts make for a terrible combination -- something highlighted by the snooper's charter and the government's desire to break encryption on demand.
The latest idea -- ushered in under the guise of protecting children in a bid to win points -- is the introduction of age restriction on porn sites. The Digital Economy Act will require porn sites to use credit card verification to check that users are aged 18 or over. There are numerous holes here, illustrating that the government simply doesn’t know what it's talking about.
Facebook asks BBC for sexual images found in Facebook groups; calls police when BBC complies
Facebook, like just about any other social network -- and, indeed, countless websites -- is home to all manner of objectionable and even illegal content. A BBC investigation found that Facebook was failing to remove sexualized images of children from groups after they were reported, calling into question Facebook's moderating procedures. Accounts for convicted pedophiles also remained online after they were reported.
When the BBC pointed out to Facebook that less than 20 percent of the reported images were removed, Facebook asked to see the images that were being investigated. When the BBC complied with the request, Facebook reported the corporation to the police for distributing illegal images. The social network's response to the investigation has been derided as "extraordinary".
South Carolina government eyes a porn block on new computers
On a day that we expect to see the repeal of North Carolina's controversial passage of House Bill 2, which cost the state millions of dollars in lost revenue thanks to performers cancelling concerts, businesses moving out and the NBA changing the venue for its All-Star game, we have one more state looking for a problem where one doesn't exist.
A representative in the state of South Carolina wishes to place a porn block on all new computers sold within its boundaries.
No kinky online sex, please -- we're British!
The UK government's relationship with the web is something of a checkered one. Keen to pander to the fear of concerned hand-wringers, we've seen torrent sites blocked and there are plans afoot to censor porn sites that do not implement 'effective' age checks.
Now there is a chance that UK web users will be denied access to websites that portray "non-conventional sexual acts" in the latest act of censorship by the government. A bill currently being considered would apply the same restrictions to online pornography that currently apply offline.
UK ISP Sky is about to start censoring the web for all of its customers
The UK government is on a mission to protect the young of the country from the dark recesses of the web. And by the darker recesses, what is really meant is porn. The main ISPs have long been required to block access to known piracy sites, but porn is also a concern -- for politicians, at least.
As part of its bid to sanitize and censor the web, Sky -- from the Murdoch stables -- is, as of today, enabling adult content filtering by default for all new customers: Sky Broadband Shield. The company wants to "help families protect their children from inappropriate content", and in a previous experiment discovered -- unsurprisingly -- that content filtering was used by more people if it was automatically enabled.
Text an emoji, get free porn
Want to watch some pornography on your phone but can’t be bothered to actually search for it? From today you can receive links to free adult content just by texting an emoji.
Pornhub’s new "Emoji 4 Porn" service offers a selection of 30 public emoji (plus an unspecified number of secret unlisted ones to find) that you can use to request whatever sort of pornography you’re into. Send them a taco emoji, for example, and you’ll receive Latina videos. A camcorder emoji will give you links to amateur content. You can probably work out what sort of videos you’ll get if you send them a melon.
Porn site xHamster bans North Carolina users in protest against anti-LGBT laws
North Carolina's decision to pass House Bill 2 -- which effectively block measures to protect LGBT people -- means that residents of the state are no longer able to access a popular porn site. Just as Bruce Springsteen decided to show his disgust at the new legislation by cancelling a concert in North Carolina, so xHamster has taken the step of blocking North Carolina porn consumers from accessing the site.
North Carolina's new law prevents local governments from passing anti-discrimination rules to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and it is sending ripples of disgust through the equal rights movement. With xHamster's involvement, the fight against the legislation has been taken online, hitting state residents where it hurts in a bid to encourage people to sign a petition against the bill.
UK government wants money-making porn sites to age-check visitors
The UK government is launching a public consultation over its plans to require pornographic websites to verify that visitors are aged 18 or over. The Conservative party wants to deliver on its manifesto pledge to introduce age verification to all porn sites, but the latest proposals go further.
The government wants all companies that profit from pornography online to implement systems to have a legal requirement to ensure that visitors are over 18. The consultation runs until 12 April and has the aim of using British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) issued 18 / 18R ratings for sites, but it's unclear how effective the system would be for free porn sites.
Your PornHub video habit will help save whales in February
This may initially generate some snickers and likely lots of tabs quickly closing, but I assure you the story is safe for work. The only nudity here is the whale in the image above. In fact this is a story about charity and of helping to save endangered species, albeit in a rather unconventional way.
It's no secret that porn drives the internet to a certain degree, and many claim it also drives innovation to some extent. True or not, it's big business that can generate massive revenues for the purveyors of the content. One of the big ones is PornHub and it is deciding to give back in the form of charitable donations to a worthwhile cause.
The FBI peddles child porn to catch predators at the cost of the kids
As a parent you worry excessively about your children. Are you raising them right? Do they understand the concepts of what is good and bad? And of course you want nothing evil to befall them. Criminals and predators are a constant worry, the latter being particularly scary. If something bad happens you wish to fix it as quickly as possible, though the trauma to the child may linger.
But what if the government ran a child porn site? There's the problem and it's one with multiple answers. There's the obvious knee-jerk reaction of entrapment, though those being captured deserve little sympathy. It's akin to the TV show To Catch a Predator which did little real good, but garnered ratings because it sensationalized the people involved.
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