September 1st: Texans, Fire Up Your VPNs, or Present Your Government-Issued ID to View Porn Online

[atomheartbevo 89504]

For those of you wanting to make a little income on the side, find a VPN that has an affiliate program. As we get closer to September 1st, start mentioning on FB where your relatives can see it, that if any of them are worried about companies or governments tracking them, and they want to make it look like they are accessing the internet from somewhere other than home (or their home state) and shield themselves a little bit (you can even use terms "hackers" and "foreigners" in your conversation to spook them), they should get a VPN, and toss in "oh by the way, use my handy coupon code and you and I both save!"

There's a half-decent chance some of your less-tech savvy relatives will bite.

[Herpa Derpa 6118]

2 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Easy.  Now try this:

Oh yeah. That's some hot scramble. I'll be in my late night dark room with headphones.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Herpa Derpa

[Homercles 10205]

So…any recommended VPN apps for iOS?  Pretty sure my wife isn’t going to buy that this new law is a valid reason to get down every single day.  

[WhatTheBuck 28730]

On 7/11/2023 at 10:10 PM, Evil Bill Obrien said:

You’ll be happy to know that blurred nude thumbnails in Google image search results are now optional.

[Gatorubet 30165]

On 7/10/2023 at 2:09 PM, NeverMarryAStripper said:

I'm sure a few months after it goes into effect, there will be a hack that releases a complete list of every Texan that presented their ID to view porn.  I bet every state politician will be on the list.

You mean, because they saw that Sound of Freedom movie and were doing investigations to stop child porn in Texas?

[Gatorubet 30165]

On 7/5/2023 at 4:37 PM, Dahobbs said:

So, now we have to figure out each of these means:

1.  "prurient interest"  
2. "patently offensive with respect to minors" (what if it is offensive, but not patently so? Where is the line?)

Oh, and the whole thing gets to be a moving target based on "contemporary community standards."

Just plead that you abide by the contemporary community standards of the online community Surly Texas. The defense rests. 

[Dahobbs 17497]

7 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

Just plead that you abide by the contemporary community standards of the online community Surly Texas. The defense rests. 

Hey, I'm not that fucked up!

[immamac 42725]

Does treefiddy need to come with an Illinois VPN now? Can make that happen with very little effort. 

[South Austin 52210]

Not surprisingly, some porn groups are suing the state of Texas challenging the new age verification statute. I know the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, as we started out at the same law firm. I might ask him if he needs a co-counsel to help with “discovery.”

Texas Sued Over Age Verification Law And Porn “Public Health Warnings”

[Dahobbs 17497]

Just now, South Austin said:

Not surprisingly, some porn groups are suing the state of Texas challenging the new age verification statute. I know the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, as we started out at the same law firm. I might ask him if he needs a co-counsel to help with “discovery.”

Texas Sued Over Age Verification Law And Porn “Public Health Warnings”

The starting point obviously needs to be the Internet search history of our legislature. 

[South Austin 52210]

1 minute ago, Dahobbs said:

The starting point obviously needs to be the Internet search history of our legislature. 

I’m afraid of the shit I would find.

[HornOnTheBayou 8881]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

Not surprisingly, some porn groups are suing the state of Texas challenging the new age verification statute. I know the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, as we started out at the same law firm. I might ask him if he needs a co-counsel to help with “discovery.”

Texas Sued Over Age Verification Law And Porn “Public Health Warnings”

If you need an expert witness, I'll be glad to volunteer. You will find that my knowledge of this particular topic is vast.

[Homercles 10205]

8 hours ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

If you need an expert witness, I'll be glad to volunteer. You will find that my knowledge of this particular topic is vast.

[HOOKEM4 5034]

9 hours ago, Dahobbs said:

The starting point obviously needs to be the Internet search history of our legislature. 

The infrastructure exists. Someone just needs to point Anonymous in the right direction. Let's make ole Ted and his lame/odd porn choices national news.

Edited August 6, 2023 by HOOKEM4
ousux

[atomheartbevo 89504]

10 hours ago, South Austin said:

Not surprisingly, some porn groups are suing the state of Texas challenging the new age verification statute. I know the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, as we started out at the same law firm. I might ask him if he needs a co-counsel to help with “discovery.”

Texas Sued Over Age Verification Law And Porn “Public Health Warnings”

The odd thing is that the state does not seem to be publicizing this much in terms of what will happen on September 1st - there's going to be a helluva lot of confused and pissed off people who are shocked/freaked out on September 1st.  It's almost like everybody is surprised it passed, and now they realize that a lot of people are going to be pissed at them trying to block porn and require government ID to view.

[atomheartbevo 89504]

Hays County fire still not good, but not terrible given the conditions this afternoon.

They got the Jeff Davis County (lightning-induced) fire pretty much contained.

But now have the Johnson County fire going, which is going to take up more resources.

 

[dcbc 14443]

34 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Hays County fire still not good, but not terrible given the conditions this afternoon.

They got the Jeff Davis County (lightning-induced) fire pretty much contained.

But now have the Johnson County fire going, which is going to take up more resources.

 

This thread took an odd turn.  But I'm not going to kink shame you.

[HornOnTheBayou 8881]

[atomheartbevo 89504]

1 hour ago, dcbc said:

This thread took an odd turn.  But I'm not going to kink shame you.

Back on topic, good to see PC Magazine is still looking out for everybody after all these years

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-watch-porn-safely

6 Tips to Watch Porn Online Safely

We can all use a little titillation. Here's how to enjoy pornography without putting your privacy (or your reputation!) at risk.

Quote

3. Use a VPN to Watch Porn

A VPN may be more necessary than ever, depending on where you are. Recently passed legislation in Louisiana requires citizens of that state to provide websites with distressingly detailed personal information to access pornographic content. Using a VPN to spoof your location to anywhere else in the US would protect you from having to hand over this information

They'll have to update that in a few weeks to include Texas, because we want to be lumped in with Louisiana.

My favorite:

Quote

6. Avoid Risky Behavior

It's also essential to keep a cool head, even when handling hot content. "Many consumers of pornography exercise poor judgment while browsing because they’re in an excited state. Biology takes over and users overlook risks they’d normally pay attention to," said Shavell. The checkered past of pornographic sites can also set a dangerous expectation that customers should expect some level of shadiness. Shavell recommends being extra cautious and listening to warnings from your computer or browser if it detects something untoward.

I love this one:

Quote

Lastly, consider your context. Browsing pornography on a work computer, or while using a work-provided VPN—even if you're quarantined at home—can land you in serious trouble.

The comments are awesome, ranging from "you're worrying to much" to "HOLY FUCKING SHIT ONLY BROWSE PORN ON A DISPOSABLE BURNER PHONE AND NOT AT YOUR HOUSE SO THEY CAN'T TRACK YOU!"

This is actually not a bad article to pass around to your less-knowledgeable relatives, although I'm still going to make money off of them and send them to a VPN affiliate.

[safe sex 11688]

[Post Oak 20191]

What vpn are you wankers using, express vpn? 

[immamac 42725]

I wasn't joking about providing a VPN for treefiddy. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21784]

That sounds like a good plan.  Not that I need one for watching open or anything.

[Captainant 27519]

23 minutes ago, immamac said:

I wasn't joking about providing a VPN for treefiddy. 

Not that I don't trust you as our dear leader but how would you manage all the legal overhead and cya that comes with that? Or did you mean like finding an official VPN partner sort of thing?

[ConferenceRoom 6132]

I’ve used PIA for years. 

[speed817 19173]

Been using PIA for years and works great.  Can usually get discounts on subscriptions on stacksocial every once in a while.  Only annoying thing for me lately with PIA is it will pull up ESPN Brazil even though I'm connected to a Texas server.

[South Austin 52210]

12 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Hays County fire still not good, but not terrible given the conditions this afternoon.

They got the Jeff Davis County (lightning-induced) fire pretty much contained.

But now have the Johnson County fire going, which is going to take up more resources.

 

[Native Horn 3495]

7 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Hawt.

[UTGrad98 2267]

9 hours ago, immamac said:

I wasn't joking about providing a VPN for treefiddy. 

Please let us know soon.  My avast sub is being renewed in Sept 

[atomheartbevo 89504]

Pornhub, XVideo (twitter?) and Brazzers have entered the chat.

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/pornhub-coalition-of-adult-websites-sue-texas-over-law-requiring-them-to-collect-users-legal-id/

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 A lawsuit filed August 4 asks a federal court to block Texas Interim Attorney General Angela Colmenero from enforcing a new law that would require users of adult websites to send their government-issued identification to those websites.

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a trade association that represents “hundreds of businesses and individuals involved in the production, distribution, sale, and presentation of constitutionally-protected adult content,” filed the lawsuit alongside 16 companies and one anonymous adult performer.

Quote

“Many of FSC’s members are individual adult performers gravely concerned about the consequences of the Act, but who fear for their safety should they come forward publicly to challenge the Act in court,” FSC’s attorneys write in the lawsuit.

Some of the companies named in the lawsuit include the operators of adult entertainment websites Brazzers, Pornhub and XVideos.

They've got some money to hire some good lawyers.

Quote

Colmenero has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit. She did file for an extension to the court’s Monday response deadline, asking the court for an extra week to prepare.

That filing does not state any reason why the Texas Office of the Attorney General would require an extension.

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The new law, House Bill 1181, goes into effect September 1. When it does, it will require any commercial entity providing adult content to utilize what the law says are “reasonable age verification methods.”

The law does not apply to social media websites or search engines.

Quote

The websites will be required to ask their users to transmit one of the following:

• digital identification;
• government-issued identification; or,
• public or private transactional data (mortgage, pay stub, etc.).

Yes, people want to provide their pay stub or mortgage information, or their driver's license, because they want that shit linked to them browsing porn sites, LOL

Quote

“Despite impinging on the rights of adults to access protected speech, [the law] fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also the most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors,” the lawsuit states.

Quote

The FSC’s attorneys also list out several means by which a minor could bypass the requirement. They also claim that content filtering on devices by parents and guardians of minors is more effective solution.

“But such far more effective and far less restrictive means don’t really matter to Texas, whose true aim is not to protect minors but to squelch constitutionally protected free speech that the State disfavors,” the lawsuit states.

Quote

The law also requires adult websites to display three warning notices to users that FSC claims to be “lengthy, controversial, and factually false.”

“The Act’s “health warning” requirement is a classic example of the State mandating an orthodox viewpoint on a controversial issue,” the lawsuit states. “Texas could easily spread its ideological, anti-pornography message through public service announcements and the like without foisting its viewpoint upon others through mandated statements that are a mix of falsehoods, discredited pseudo-science, and baseless accusations.”

 

[Boss Hogg 808]

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

[wildcat09 29307]

I bet this dude threatens to shoot up FBI offices any time he starts thinking about real ids.

[ztejas 43383]

30 minutes ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

I don't give a fuck about your kids. Your kids aren't my problem. I'm a (young) millennial trying to navigate the fucking hellscape that is human society in 2023. Having to show your ID to watch porn is fucking absurd. It's like needing a medical exemption to be allowed to smoke weed. At least on the pot front we are going forwards not backwards. 

[scottsins 1959]

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 
If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

Parent your kids.

[Dahobbs 17497]

1 hour ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

I have to be honest. You suck. 

[AUS-97HORN 11731]

1 hour ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

its not the governments job to parent your fucking kids.   its your job.

If you are worried about a teenager accessing porn, spend the $200 fucking dollars to install montioring software yourself you fucking fuck

Rather than telling me to just go ahead and pay the  $5/10 month  to avoid bullshit government oversight.

Edited August 13, 2023 by AUS-97HORN

[Deej 76641]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Pornhub, XVideo (twitter?) and Brazzers have entered the chat.

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/pornhub-coalition-of-adult-websites-sue-texas-over-law-requiring-them-to-collect-users-legal-id/

They've got some money to hire some good lawyers.

Yes, people want to provide their pay stub or mortgage information, or their driver's license, because they want that shit linked to them browsing porn sites, LOL

 

They should release Dan Patrick's search history from their sites.

[Deej 76641]

1 hour ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

Username checks out

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13558]

When I see the name "Boss Hogg", first thing I think is "needs government to assist in raising kids". 

[immamac 42725]

2 hours ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

So limit their access, what is stopping you? 

Do you also want to limit their access from running in the freeway? Should we ban cars too for your children's sake? 

[Deej 76641]

8 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

When I see the name "Boss Hogg", first thing I think is "needs government to assist in raising kids". 

He did seem to think Uncle Jesse wasn't raising those Duke boys right. 

[Homercles 10205]

2 hours ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

They’ve already been watching porn for years

[austingirl 2188]

VPNs are good to have for privacy in general. NordVPN is a good, standard one for personal use - I used it for a long time. I recently switched to Mullvad after reading an article in Wire, and it's great, but they are super-committed to privacy beyond a normal level so the sign-up and payment process is a bit different. For those of you looking for a Ron Swanson level of privacy, you want to go with Mullvad. 

[MrBig 5312]

2 hours ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 
 

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

You must love this idea too. 

[956 Worldwide 34526]

On 8/6/2023 at 10:09 PM, atomheartbevo said:

Back on topic, good to see PC Magazine is still looking out for everybody after all these years

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-watch-porn-safely

6 Tips to Watch Porn Online Safely

We can all use a little titillation. Here's how to enjoy pornography without putting your privacy (or your reputation!) at risk.

They'll have to update that in a few weeks to include Texas, because we want to be lumped in with Louisiana.

My favorite:

I love this one:

The comments are awesome, ranging from "you're worrying to much" to "HOLY FUCKING SHIT ONLY BROWSE PORN ON A DISPOSABLE BURNER PHONE AND NOT AT YOUR HOUSE SO THEY CAN'T TRACK YOU!"

This is actually not a bad article to pass around to your less-knowledgeable relatives, although I'm still going to make money off of them and send them to a VPN affiliate.

I start in a new office on Monday, so thanks for this link for me to pass around to my new team to get off to a great start! 

[Boss Hogg 808]

11 minutes ago, scottsins said:

Parent your kids.

I do. 
 

1 hour ago, AUS-97HORN said:

If you are worried about a teenager accessing porn, spend the $200 fucking dollars to install montioring software yourself you fucking fuck

 

It doesn’t take $200 dollars. We monitor traffic.
 

But it’s nice to see that there’s some hoops to jump through for underage kids to watch porn. There’s zero positives to unfettered access to pornography for teens. Unless you can name one?

 

1 hour ago, immamac said:

So limit their access, what is stopping you? 

Do you also want to limit their access from running in the freeway? Should we ban cars too for your children's sake? 

None of these comparisons are relevant or valid.
 

1 hour ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

When I see the name "Boss Hogg", first thing I think is "needs government to assist in raising kids". 

Should everything be legal and accessible to kids 24/7? What about tobacco? Is the government “assisting” me in raising them by outlawing tobacco?

[mantis toboggan 847]

[atomheartbevo 89504]

4 hours ago, Boss Hogg said:

I have to be honest. As a parent of four with the oldest being 14, limiting their potential access to 24-7 pornography going forward isn’t a bad thing. 

You know how you limit their access to porn?  Don't get them smartphones that they can use on their own - get them an Apple Watch with cellular features where they don't need an iPhone (or the Google equivalent), or get them one of the dumbed-down flip phones that don't let them browse the internet.  Don't let them use a computer or tablet or smartphone without you either being in the room, or without Guided Access (iPad) or Screen Pinning (Android) enabled. Here, links if you don't know what those features are:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202612

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9455138?hl=en

4 hours ago, Boss Hogg said:

If you’re an adult that wants to watch strangers fuck on your phone, then buy a VPN. Big deal. If you can’t afford/don’t want to pay $5 or whatever for it, then scan your DL. 

Maybe you and bought into the whole "It takes a village to raise a child" movement crap in the 90s. That's your right. The problem is that you don't want to monitor your kid, so you'd rather the whole village be monitored.  Because that's what this ultimately is - you can go read the CR thread (back in January, about Louisiana's laws which we copied) - it's about the state building a database of everybody accessing porn, or at least those that are not all that tech-savvy, and some folks behind bills like this are trying to get all porn banned (it's a national group that is writing up the wording of these bills and handing them out to politicians) - feel free to discuss that aspect in the CR thread, but it's ultimately not about protecting kids.

And don't tell me that the digital state ID system that Texas has, the database of people using their driver's license or whatever, to access porn is going to be kept private and not used in nefarious ways - that's like telling somebody that's obsessed with bass fishing that you know exactly on a lake where there's a 15lb bass, and give them a map to the spot, and then tell them "oh, by the way, you can't use that map or go visit that spot on the lake for this or that reason" because you know damned well they'll do anything they can to get at that bass, just like plenty of people will want access to lists of people who are accessing porn.

And the private companies that are trying to position themselves as gatekeepers in place of the state of Texas's digital ID service - the companies that validate your mortgage payment or utility bills or pay stubs whatever so that you aren't accessing the state's digital ID service, yeah, they aren't doing it unless they are going to profit handsomely from that information, and the most profitable way is to sell that data, which many companies/states will happily buy.

And this system is ripe for kids to swipe their parents' IDs for a few minutes, get it setup to access whatever, and then place it back in their wallet or purse. Unless the system(s) require somebody to be on video chat with their IDs, in which case, that's going to be a system heavily targeted by all kinds of people who want that kind of data.

Edited August 13, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13558]

13 minutes ago, Boss Hogg said:

I do. 
 

It doesn’t take $200 dollars. We monitor traffic.
 

But it’s nice to see that there’s some hoops to jump through for underage kids to watch porn. There’s zero positives to unfettered access to pornography for teens. Unless you can name one?

 

None of these comparisons are relevant or valid.
 

Should everything be legal and accessible to kids 24/7? What about tobacco? Is the government “assisting” me in raising them by outlawing tobacco?

Your sudden, timely, pearl-clutching concern for kids is noted, clown dick. 

[atomheartbevo 89504]

19 minutes ago, Boss Hogg said:

But it’s nice to see that there’s some hoops to jump through for underage kids to watch porn. There’s zero positives to unfettered access to pornography for teens. Unless you can name one?

There's no positives, which is why you shouldn't let your kids access it.  And by the way, you should be extremely vigilant of your teens anyways, because there's a whole lot of non-porn problems on the internet that your kids shouldn't be around, and this law does nothing about that, whether it's racist shit or just assholish shit in general (bullying, etc.) or actual death and destruction (Ogrish and Live Leak maybe gone, but they live on through twitter, reddit, etc.).  If you think that your kids can go on the internet "safely" after September 1st, you definitely should not have had children. 

I don't know how old you are, but those of us who were kids in the 70s or 80s (or earlier), if we stole a beer or nudie magazine, either from a store or from another kid's parent, a lot of us would get our asses beat by whoever caught us or at the very least they'd tell our parents and we'd get our asses beat (maybe a second time). At the very least, we'd be grounded (back when it meant something), we might even be humiliated (our parents would drag us into the store or over to the other parents house and make us apologize/pay them back/etc.).

You know what didn't happen when we got caught stealing a nudie magazine or a beer or whatever?  They didn't say "little Johnny stole a Playboy from Ricky's dad, so instead of punishing little Johnny, we're going to make a list of all parents who want to buy porn or alcoholic beverages and you have to be on that list to buy porn or alcohol, but don't worry, we'll keep the list safe, it'll never be leaked to the world at large, and even if it got leaked, it'll only say that Mary Johnson or Robert Smith bought a porn mag, it won't say what kind of porn mag they bought, although it might show what store they were shopping at such as the adult store just outside of town, or that Tom Plant bought alcohol, but not how much or where at, well maybe it'll show that he buys alcohol every few days, but we promise we'll keep it safe, trust us!"