The mainstream sites have age-verify. That’s just led to me going to the dodgier websites. There’s millions of porn sites on the internet, they can’t block them all. Not to mention all of the content uploaded to torrent sites, message boards, etc.
It’s a fools errand.
horny4cyclists on
If only we had any real world examples of how banning things or making them harder to access or even making them too expensive leads to people seeking less scrupulous methods of obtaining them.
Any at all.
maticusmat on
Ahh yes because teenagers will definitely not be able to get around these restrictions……
OfficialUberZ on
Just got a VPN for 80 cents a month for 6 months, increasing to $4 a month for the next 18, sorry about that Mr Government.
Feels nice being Honduran.
traceyandmeower on
The people who make laws have zero knowledge of IT communication.
It’s embarrassing.
Electronic-Humor-931 on
I mean you can just search for porn on Reddit
Beautiful-Affect3448 on
Where’s all those people who were for the u16 social media ban and were proudly claiming that it wont be used on the wider internet and calling those of us who were against it paranoid.
Age verification is being suggested at an OS level (Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, etc.) right now, and you can probably bet on encrypted messaging apps and commercial VPNs requiring ID in the near future.
No_Seat8357 on
Its a great step to educating the young about VPNs.
infiniteknightt on
Any chance to put the same effort into gambling sites that actually destroy lives
A Victory for Hackers, Scammers and Government Global Surveillance. Less effective than a concerned parent blocking sites at router level, using something like net nanny to monitor their childs internet usage and having good communication with your children.
EppingMarky on
Don’t we just have fake accounts for dodgy webpages?
incoherent1 on
Nice to see the Albanese government bowing to Christian lobby groups /s
Labor is no longer a left wing party.
Everyone should download the free Tor browser.
Jehooveremover on
This Authoritarian bullshit needs to stop.
This is far more about manipulation and control than it ever was about keeping children safe.
We are a secular nation, our Government should not be projecting their own morality upon the people.
They are representives not rulers and need to start acting as such before we the people are left with no choice but to hold them accountable.
Albo is a disgrace, he needs to apologize to the nation and resign.
VintageKofta on
Took me 2 minutes to bypass it without the use of a VPN. Just a few tricks with blockers and a few other apps. Easy as.
kiwiboy22 on
now they have no idea how bad the problemis, now kids are either getting a VPN or going to even worse parts of the internet. It’s fucking idiotic and classic old world thinking policy that doesn’t apply to the internet. 4Chan, deviant art, R34 and Yiffers are still available in australia.
Talqazar on
>According to the search engine optimisation website Semrush, the porn site Thisvid appeared to be the only one in the Top 20 that had complied.
Yeah Josh, this needs a lot more explanation. All the main porn sites bar 1 are asking for verification and sites like patreon and onlyfans have always asked for verification so either your researcher has slacked off or your using a very misleading definition of comply.
Straight_Fix_7318 on
hi from tasmania, i guess we still arent aus cuz i just checked and only get the standard “u 18 m8? cool” question.
edit: in case it matters no vpn etc
abra5umente on
Can’t buy fuel. Can’t buy a vape. Can’t have a wank.
But at least I can see what’s trending on Pornhub in the USA now. They love their step-sibling content.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
AngusLynch09 on
Those advocates are going to be shocked to find out that the dodgier sites that host child porn and revenge porn don’t give a shit about Australian age verification laws. Those sites are about to get a lot more traffic.
SleepyKang on
I guess they will just use 4chan and motherless now
Galton-Woggins on
Thanks to VPN I live in Canada now
reddwarf_ on
Always darker corners.
luv2hotdog on
Porn is 1000% the gateway to both general IP protection and cybercrime surveillance.
That’s what this has always been about IMO. I feel quite validated for being a teenager in the 2000s and thinking “this whole anonymous internet use thing is never going to be allowed to last”. Of COURSE governments are going to wan to know what people are up to on the internet – both for good reasons IMO (catching people who are into child porn, the bad black market type shit) as well as more questionable ones depending on your personal morality (protecting IP)
Torrenting an out-of-print movie from some obscure production company, downloading DRM free epubs from Usenet, changing locations to access cheaper streaming services, and human sex trafficking and child porn are not morally equal, but they are all equally illegal – and we as a collective society were never going to indefinitely allow the latter to continue to run rampant via the internet, and governments were never going to opt out of policing the less reprehensible but still illegal activity once they were technologically able to.
Most of us grew up in the Wild West of the early internet. It was never, ever going to be allowed to stay that way. I don’t see all this as them taking away something we have a right to, I see it as us being lucky enough to have lived in the couple of decades it took for the law to catch up with the technology. Everything we can currently still get away with by using VPNs is inevitably going to go away eventually, so enjoy it while it lasts IMO.
pezpok on
Small sites are geo blocking Australia cause they cant afford the cost to integrate age verification or the fines.
I said yes to vpn.
CarbFreeBeer on
If you want to see what happens, look to China’s Great Firewall
Puzzled-Leopard-1499 on
Was there any advocates for this though? I feel like this was just snuck in without telling anyone.
I dont know a single person who agrees with this or even knew it was happening.
5Volt on
Australia has been trying to restrict cigarette purchases using draconic taxes for over a decade which has lead to a thriving black market for tobacco. Almost every smoker you see now is smoking black market cigarettes. We also banned vapes outright, which has lead to a thriving black market for vapes. More people vape than smoke because it’s so unbelievably cheap compared to cigarettes(no taxes on illegal imports). Many of the vapes are counterfeit versions of reputable brands containing vape liquid that has undergone no quality assurance or safety standards. To be clear these are nasty vapes, many still use vitamin E for flavouring (the compound which causes popcorn lung). Same situation for the cigarettes they’re Chinese counterfeits with no QA or safety standards.
These failures are recent, the legislators who oversaw the absolute failure of tobacco restrictions are the same ones who are now overseeing the internet access restrictions. They have no excuse to expect anything different.
purplepashy on
First we have age verification to prevent kids watching YouTube.
Then we have posts complaining about kids being out and about on e-bikes and e-scooters.
Then we have age verification for porn sites or they are simply blocking Australia.
Next we will have a heap of men out and about that are usually safe at home cranking their junk endlessly while watching porn but are now unable.
What could go wrong‽
The_Foresaken_Mind on
Give it time, all the age verification data will end up being stolen and it will be a data broker’s wet dream.
PsiCzar on
If you want to view porn just get a paid VPN account, no need to go to “the darker corners of the internet”. I’m now Indonesian, Terima kasih.
Axl_Alter_Ego on
Cue an increase in teens googling “how to get around the age block in Australia” then pestering their clueless parents to get a VPN because it’s “needed for school” or because “it will make the computer safer” or “any other reason that’s not porn related”.
The effects of the age verification will achieve very little except cement the corporations control of the government.
relativelyignorant on
It just means more soft core porn won’t need age verification
DaveTheMan1985 on
Not Really
Just need a VPN
sol_krn on
Prohibition always works out.
Lazy_Polluter on
It’s a loss for everyone except Palantir and Meta that are pushing for these laws worldwide. They weren’t put forward by real advocacy groups. Just check who is finding all these random age verification companies that supposedly care about your privacy. Funny how the legislation doesn’t offer any privacy protections whatsoever, it’s fully in private hands.
ToughAss709394 on
Gambling and drinking ads are fine and drawing lines on porns, money do talk aloud
Time to open my local VPN and Ads companies target to the lobbies and the politicians. And we are guarantee selling those data and identity
DuskHourStudio on
But yet gambling ads, apps and propaganda is allowed to get shoved in everyone’s faces with Z E R O restraint…
Morg_n on
How’s about it’s just an incredible over reach. Executed badly.
Successful-Layer2102 on
Oh no anyway free VPN extension on almost all browsers negates it completely and does not require any login or account.
Its such a small hurdle it’s a wonder why they even thought about putting it on place to begin with
Its not like the majority of Australians are very tech literate and k ow more about tech than those legislating the changes.
Just another in a long line of authoritarian over reactions in this country.
Like claiming “river to the sea” is hate speech.
What happened to this country
ghoonrhed on
They should just challenge the government into getting fined.
Like they’re slow moving in fining companies it’d probably take years
Muthro on
I keep thinking there should be access to some kind of softcore pornography that presents respectful, positive sex that is accessible for 15+
None of the grot, just giving examples to model that aren’t “Bang Brothers Family Edition”
OkBumblebeer on
“I’m fairly sure if they took porn off the internet, there’d only be one website left, and it’d be called “Bring back the porn!” Doctor Perry Cox – Scrubs
SofttHamburgers on
weapons? illegal. Drugs? Illegal. Vaping? Illegal. Porn? Illegal. Drinking? Taxed through the roof and unaffordable. So what exactly are we suppose to do for fun or winding down time? How are we alive as humans and we let other humans tell us what we can and can’t do. Fucking bonkers.
FreakyNightingale22 on
That e Karen, maybe she should spend more time putting restrictions on gambling ads, apps and websites, which are all actively destroying families, then declaring a holy war on porn, which causes minimal damage
Ok-Bill3318 on
Kids are far more aware of how to set up anonymising proxies and VPNs than the idiot lawmakers we have.
This law will achieve basically nothing other than push things further underground
Albos_Mum on
Absolutely a gateway. Once they figure out how to bypass the block, it pretty much opens up Pandora’s box and the age verification gives most teenage boys a very good prize if they do figure it out.
48 Comments
The mainstream sites have age-verify. That’s just led to me going to the dodgier websites. There’s millions of porn sites on the internet, they can’t block them all. Not to mention all of the content uploaded to torrent sites, message boards, etc.
It’s a fools errand.
If only we had any real world examples of how banning things or making them harder to access or even making them too expensive leads to people seeking less scrupulous methods of obtaining them.
Any at all.
Ahh yes because teenagers will definitely not be able to get around these restrictions……
Just got a VPN for 80 cents a month for 6 months, increasing to $4 a month for the next 18, sorry about that Mr Government.
Feels nice being Honduran.
The people who make laws have zero knowledge of IT communication.
It’s embarrassing.
I mean you can just search for porn on Reddit
Where’s all those people who were for the u16 social media ban and were proudly claiming that it wont be used on the wider internet and calling those of us who were against it paranoid.
Age verification is being suggested at an OS level (Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, etc.) right now, and you can probably bet on encrypted messaging apps and commercial VPNs requiring ID in the near future.
Its a great step to educating the young about VPNs.
Any chance to put the same effort into gambling sites that actually destroy lives
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/offer/best?coupon=official-site&utm_campaign=18178466041&utm_adgroup=135783208250&keyword=pia&ms=gb&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18178466041&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoJfbj-WgkwMV7yGDAx0cSgPWEAAYASADEgLEx_D_BwE
Cheaper than a litre of diesel
A Victory for Hackers, Scammers and Government Global Surveillance. Less effective than a concerned parent blocking sites at router level, using something like net nanny to monitor their childs internet usage and having good communication with your children.
Don’t we just have fake accounts for dodgy webpages?
Nice to see the Albanese government bowing to Christian lobby groups /s
Labor is no longer a left wing party.
Everyone should download the free Tor browser.
This Authoritarian bullshit needs to stop.
This is far more about manipulation and control than it ever was about keeping children safe.
We are a secular nation, our Government should not be projecting their own morality upon the people.
They are representives not rulers and need to start acting as such before we the people are left with no choice but to hold them accountable.
Albo is a disgrace, he needs to apologize to the nation and resign.
Took me 2 minutes to bypass it without the use of a VPN. Just a few tricks with blockers and a few other apps. Easy as.
now they have no idea how bad the problemis, now kids are either getting a VPN or going to even worse parts of the internet. It’s fucking idiotic and classic old world thinking policy that doesn’t apply to the internet. 4Chan, deviant art, R34 and Yiffers are still available in australia.
>According to the search engine optimisation website Semrush, the porn site Thisvid appeared to be the only one in the Top 20 that had complied.
Yeah Josh, this needs a lot more explanation. All the main porn sites bar 1 are asking for verification and sites like patreon and onlyfans have always asked for verification so either your researcher has slacked off or your using a very misleading definition of comply.
hi from tasmania, i guess we still arent aus cuz i just checked and only get the standard “u 18 m8? cool” question.
edit: in case it matters no vpn etc
Can’t buy fuel. Can’t buy a vape. Can’t have a wank.
But at least I can see what’s trending on Pornhub in the USA now. They love their step-sibling content.
[deleted]
Those advocates are going to be shocked to find out that the dodgier sites that host child porn and revenge porn don’t give a shit about Australian age verification laws. Those sites are about to get a lot more traffic.
I guess they will just use 4chan and motherless now
Thanks to VPN I live in Canada now
Always darker corners.
Porn is 1000% the gateway to both general IP protection and cybercrime surveillance.
That’s what this has always been about IMO. I feel quite validated for being a teenager in the 2000s and thinking “this whole anonymous internet use thing is never going to be allowed to last”. Of COURSE governments are going to wan to know what people are up to on the internet – both for good reasons IMO (catching people who are into child porn, the bad black market type shit) as well as more questionable ones depending on your personal morality (protecting IP)
Torrenting an out-of-print movie from some obscure production company, downloading DRM free epubs from Usenet, changing locations to access cheaper streaming services, and human sex trafficking and child porn are not morally equal, but they are all equally illegal – and we as a collective society were never going to indefinitely allow the latter to continue to run rampant via the internet, and governments were never going to opt out of policing the less reprehensible but still illegal activity once they were technologically able to.
Most of us grew up in the Wild West of the early internet. It was never, ever going to be allowed to stay that way. I don’t see all this as them taking away something we have a right to, I see it as us being lucky enough to have lived in the couple of decades it took for the law to catch up with the technology. Everything we can currently still get away with by using VPNs is inevitably going to go away eventually, so enjoy it while it lasts IMO.
Small sites are geo blocking Australia cause they cant afford the cost to integrate age verification or the fines.
I said yes to vpn.
If you want to see what happens, look to China’s Great Firewall
Was there any advocates for this though? I feel like this was just snuck in without telling anyone.
I dont know a single person who agrees with this or even knew it was happening.
Australia has been trying to restrict cigarette purchases using draconic taxes for over a decade which has lead to a thriving black market for tobacco. Almost every smoker you see now is smoking black market cigarettes. We also banned vapes outright, which has lead to a thriving black market for vapes. More people vape than smoke because it’s so unbelievably cheap compared to cigarettes(no taxes on illegal imports). Many of the vapes are counterfeit versions of reputable brands containing vape liquid that has undergone no quality assurance or safety standards. To be clear these are nasty vapes, many still use vitamin E for flavouring (the compound which causes popcorn lung). Same situation for the cigarettes they’re Chinese counterfeits with no QA or safety standards.
These failures are recent, the legislators who oversaw the absolute failure of tobacco restrictions are the same ones who are now overseeing the internet access restrictions. They have no excuse to expect anything different.
First we have age verification to prevent kids watching YouTube.
Then we have posts complaining about kids being out and about on e-bikes and e-scooters.
Then we have age verification for porn sites or they are simply blocking Australia.
Next we will have a heap of men out and about that are usually safe at home cranking their junk endlessly while watching porn but are now unable.
What could go wrong‽
Give it time, all the age verification data will end up being stolen and it will be a data broker’s wet dream.
If you want to view porn just get a paid VPN account, no need to go to “the darker corners of the internet”. I’m now Indonesian, Terima kasih.
Cue an increase in teens googling “how to get around the age block in Australia” then pestering their clueless parents to get a VPN because it’s “needed for school” or because “it will make the computer safer” or “any other reason that’s not porn related”.
The effects of the age verification will achieve very little except cement the corporations control of the government.
It just means more soft core porn won’t need age verification
Not Really
Just need a VPN
Prohibition always works out.
It’s a loss for everyone except Palantir and Meta that are pushing for these laws worldwide. They weren’t put forward by real advocacy groups. Just check who is finding all these random age verification companies that supposedly care about your privacy. Funny how the legislation doesn’t offer any privacy protections whatsoever, it’s fully in private hands.
Gambling and drinking ads are fine and drawing lines on porns, money do talk aloud
Time to open my local VPN and Ads companies target to the lobbies and the politicians. And we are guarantee selling those data and identity
But yet gambling ads, apps and propaganda is allowed to get shoved in everyone’s faces with Z E R O restraint…
How’s about it’s just an incredible over reach. Executed badly.
Oh no anyway free VPN extension on almost all browsers negates it completely and does not require any login or account.
Its such a small hurdle it’s a wonder why they even thought about putting it on place to begin with
Its not like the majority of Australians are very tech literate and k ow more about tech than those legislating the changes.
Just another in a long line of authoritarian over reactions in this country.
Like claiming “river to the sea” is hate speech.
What happened to this country
They should just challenge the government into getting fined.
Like they’re slow moving in fining companies it’d probably take years
I keep thinking there should be access to some kind of softcore pornography that presents respectful, positive sex that is accessible for 15+
None of the grot, just giving examples to model that aren’t “Bang Brothers Family Edition”
“I’m fairly sure if they took porn off the internet, there’d only be one website left, and it’d be called “Bring back the porn!” Doctor Perry Cox – Scrubs
weapons? illegal. Drugs? Illegal. Vaping? Illegal. Porn? Illegal. Drinking? Taxed through the roof and unaffordable. So what exactly are we suppose to do for fun or winding down time? How are we alive as humans and we let other humans tell us what we can and can’t do. Fucking bonkers.
That e Karen, maybe she should spend more time putting restrictions on gambling ads, apps and websites, which are all actively destroying families, then declaring a holy war on porn, which causes minimal damage
Kids are far more aware of how to set up anonymising proxies and VPNs than the idiot lawmakers we have.
This law will achieve basically nothing other than push things further underground
Absolutely a gateway. Once they figure out how to bypass the block, it pretty much opens up Pandora’s box and the age verification gives most teenage boys a very good prize if they do figure it out.