Did the adult industry just bend over ...
 

and say "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

Pertaining to the age verification laws ....

It's not uncommon for companies to actively engage in combating legislation that impacts their industry through various means, including lobbying, legal challenges, public relations campaigns and other avenues.


Normally, when an industry faces challenges due to legislation, industry leaders will step up and at least attempt to fight it. Where are the industry leaders in adult? I have not found anything, aside from the Free Speech Coalition (attempted to fight TX law) ACLU (and a couple others listed below) trying to challenge these age verification laws. The context/outcome of these cases or who is involved is irrelevant, I have some examples in the event someone says it never happens and will post them if needed.

--------
Need Examples? Ask and I will post ... otherwise, irrelevant.
--------

As I said, many examples of this happening in mainstream with the big players in the industry stepping up, and even some on the age laws. For example, tech trade group NetChoice opposed age verification laws in the US requiring age verification on social media platforms. However, I was only able to find 1 adult related (non profit) company opposing these laws that are now active (or pending) in about 50% of the US. There were some human rights groups like Woodhull, ACLU and one other as well, but no other adult companies involved in the fight, except for maybe pornhub (wasn't able to confirm the exact legal details).

I've heard things like "it's no big deal", or "simple and painless", but, the reality is:

"These laws introduce surveillance systems that threaten everyone’s rights to speech and privacy, and introduce more harm than they seek to combat."

Yet very little to no legal action was taken by any companies in the adult industry to try and prevent it.

WHY NOT?!

Perhaps there were attempts, if so, please share, because I was not able to find any.

Will these lawmakers stop here, or has it opened an easy gateway for future legislation? No clue ... and I can only speculate, but I know attorneys and states will get richer with all the lawsuits and civil penalties that will come from this. No one finds that disturbing?

I suggest that before you integrate any 3rd party verification provider and call it a day, it might be a good idea to do your research and due diligence, because lawsuits (and perhaps even criminal charges) will happen and some lawsuits have already started. For example, a private party is suing 4 different websites in the tune of $14 million. :helpme

Examples ...
 

I just quickly found some examples in the event someone says it never happens:

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Pharmaceutical Industry and Drug Pricing: Pharmaceutical companies, including Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb, have filed lawsuits challenging Medicare drug price negotiation provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, arguing that these provisions are unconstitutional and will stifle innovation. They claim violations of the First and Fifth Amendments, and a major lobbying group for the industry, PhRMA, argued that the program violates the separation of powers and due process clauses, according to Cornell University. According to Bloomberg Law News, major pharmaceutical companies are also ramping up their legal fight against state laws requiring them to distribute discounted drugs to an unlimited number of pharmacies.


Tech Industry and Data Privacy: Big Tech companies, like Google, Amazon, and Meta, have been actively lobbying against strong state data privacy laws and advocating for a weaker federal standard, says the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. They use tactics like highlighting the "patchwork" of state laws to argue for the need for a national standard that could potentially preempt stronger state regulations. Trade groups like NetChoice, representing major tech companies, have also been actively involved in lobbying against state data privacy legislation, notes The Record from Recorded Future News.


Social Media Platforms and Content Moderation Laws: Social media companies have challenged state laws, like those in Texas and Florida, that attempt to restrict their ability to moderate content. Industry groups like NetChoice have argued that these laws infringe on the platforms' First Amendment rights to make editorial decisions about content.
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These now have AV checks in some countries:
- X (Twitter)
- Reddit
- Steam
- Nexus Mods

Other mainstream sites are doing changes too:
- itch.io (shadowbanned all NSFW games)

If these sites opt to comply with these new laws instead of trying to go against them... There's very little that porn sites can do.


Something else that is interesting...

I shared full details of +5 well-known pirate sites with CSAM on them to:
Ofcom (UK)
cnam.ie (Ireland)
Arcom (France)

100s of links... Cases are 100% proven and public. None of them did anything.

I don't think you know how small the adult industry is...

Interesting about x and reddit (I wonder if they are doing in US) since what I understand mainstream social media was sort of immune in most states because of the 33.3% rule.

Of course they won't do anything, I think there's a bigger picture at play here. First, they will target low hanging fruit, and then big pay days that make them look like the hero. Whatever gives them the most "bang for their buck" (no pun intended) is what I'm guessing.

That may very well be the case.

They all moved into AI.

:1orglaugh

In all seriousness, could be, maybe many moved to mainstream.

There's clearly an opportunity to utilize ai for just about everything in adult (not quite live yet) but that will come soon as well. You can literally make a movie and don't need to hire any talent, pay for locations, editing, photographers and the like. And I'm pretty sure people will buy it, because it's nearly perfected. So, AI will play a factor in most jobs. Live girls / talent and cams is the *safest* as of right now, but that is almost a possibility as well. Doesn't take much to train a model on it. So, yeah ... could be scary times ahead for many.

I wonder if AI is the next target on the list of laws.

AI will revitalize the adult affiliate market in 1000 ways before the AI images and videos. There's already mainstream companies that will compete on that end.

OnlyFans and similar caused a huge chunk of the money flowing to shift directly to a few owners and the models but not many are being creative with how they monetize what's left at all. Now that a single person can be 1000x more efficient that will change dramatically.

This is all assuming the AV laws don't discourage but eventually someone will take a chance.

I sort of had them in mind when I was referring to "industry leaders". I've seen claims of the amounts of money they bring in, but yet they couldn't spare a few million to help fight this battle? And really, why would it cost a few million? How and why are attorneys able to charge this much? Perhaps the lawmakers, judges, attorneys, politicians and whoever else is involved need to be investigated. Food for thought ...

As I said in the other post, I don't believe everyone will be replaced, and there will always be a need for more personalized/advanced roles, but AI is without a doubt assisting with making that happen. Adapt or die is definitely in play here.

OnlyFans only stands to make more money by you giving up. They don't even really take affiliates now and any closed sites will just increase their share of the pie, the models are doing all of the hustling which is 1000x smarter than dealing with affiliates anyhow.

Try the police: note that they are probably interested in 2 stuffs:
- a law (that they enforce) has obviously not been respected.
(Website makes money undeclared, note that it's harder to tell with these whois with less and less info).
- you are the victim of the deeds.

If not, I would rather contact the legal owner of the content.

Just compare the money that the adult business does with the other industries, you ll see.
The adult industry is more a good target for activists and other politicians who like scapegoats

So, I had to look this up.

X
Only for Ireland and UK, and they are doing internal verifications.

Reddit
So far, UK users only

Just to clarify, I was more curious about the US base.

They will make a law to protect politicians (and a couple of selected friends), from AI.


Problem solved!

Oh wait no....
They will them make lawSss to annoy us all, but not them, because they know better...
Cripple your enemies, foster your friends.

This is 100% fucking spot on! It's already been done MANY times over!!

I'm very happy to implement age verification across all of my sites if it keeps children safe from accidentally seeing a pair of boobs!

They certainly did figure out how to capitalize on a models fanbase without having to do any promotion themselves. Or was it the celebs who helped get that site to that level. Not sure, but really beyond me why anyone uses that site, when they offer zero internal promotion. It keeps getting promoted, and models keep joining that's for sure.

Oh, please, that is really naive. The fact is, is that this could have been done so much easier on a device and/or computer level. Ever hear of parenting or parental controls? Guess what, it would have been much less prone to error, and all the website owner would have to do is integrate a small tag and it's blocked on all devices -- and more of the responsibility would have been shifted to the parent. Do you honestly believe that minors are not going to find a way to watch porn? Have you not heard of a vpn/vps? Stats show that 40% of kids use them these days.... so, when they start accessing your site using a vpn, tell me, how safe has this made it for them?

What's next, put a ban all vpn/vps and tor? Would you be happy with that as well?

I did contact police. They didn't reply to my emails or forms I submitted.

At least... Ofcom, Arcom and cnam.ie reply to their emails. They say "they'll investigate the issue".

3 of them are very well-known filelockers. Others are pirate tubes.

Some of them took videos down before... But, just allow the same user to reupload. They change links and they're good to go to. It's just disgusting.

There's always a way around a vpn ban.

And every other horror the "royals" have planned.

Posting details of any workaround online (even in "private" message/emails etc.) is stoop id.

No nudes in my X feed. I'm currently located in Spain, part of the European Union, and requesting age verification. Just hours ago, I could watch adult content without any issues.

:2 cents:

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

If you've been following the past 5-7 years of age verification law, then you know this isn't the case. Maybe if you ask ChatGPT you'll get that kind of an answer.

Numerous companies have been beating the drum, filing suits, and spending money. Not site just site operators, but hosting companies too. XBiz has been putting out dozens of articles on every movement in this space. The top lawyers in the industry are constantly putting out videos and tweets.

From a web development perspective, I was asked to start integrating age verification solutions as far back as 2018 due to UK laws which were not realized until this year. They were fought and defeated then, but not now.

My login management software started implementing age verification in 2024. It seemed like this was the way things were going to go globally. I have a feeling things are going to get much worse before they get anywhere close to better.

Quite frankly, most people just said "it's not going to happen." Why would they invest into something they thought was never going to happen? Even on this forum, you can read the numerous age verification threads over the past year, the Project 2025 thread, and so many others. In fact, the best legal minds in the adult industry seemed convinced that this outcome wasn't realistic. Their commentary comes off pretty shocked.

The United States Supreme Court ruled that states can set age verification laws on online pornography. I don't think people are laying down and taking it. They're adapting to the laws. We're way past the point of lobbying.

You would have to literally challenge every single law, and sue every single state and country implementing AV to challenge where we are. In the United States, that means hiring 50 different attorneys, all with credible experience fighting governments, willing to push to federal courts if necessary.

Who has cashflow for something like that? If you have the cashflow for this, I'm definitely available for consultation and hiring.

More realistic: Who has the comradery to band together to make it happen?

We're talking probably tens, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees. Pharma companies and social media companies are profiting in the billions. Of course they can afford lobbyists.

Maybe if the industry had created an NRA-equivalent 15 or so years ago, we would be in a different position, but that's hindsight.

One of the top lawyers in the industry posted on this very forum months ago and said: if you want to do business in a country, or a state, you need to follow their laws.

The unique makeup of the United States, and the vulnerability of GeoIP accuracy, means that not following these laws puts you at risk, even if you try to block that state. I don't think VPNs are going to protect anyone. At least that's what my takeaway from Corey Silverstein's webinar was.

This isn't legal advice, but site operators have to make money, and they have two courses of action in the short-term:

* Comply with the law.

* Not comply with the law.

In Silverstein's webinar a couple weeks ago, he spoke about what he thinks is likely to happen next, and it's going to be litigation. I'm paraphrasing, but AGs are going to sue companies (and have) and those AGs are going to try and shut down and destroy porn.

Those site operators are now going to have to litigate in front of a jury that they did everything reasonable to prevent minors from viewing explicit content.

That's why I keep saying I don't think age estimation is a long-term solution. I'm seeing people bypassing age estimation on Twitter for Discord and other services using WWE games. This is why my LoginBlue product isn't integrating any age verifiers (outside of a demo or test) who do not take this very seriously. We seem to be at the risk aversion stage, and no one is going to mitigate risk for you. You need a lawyer to give you guidance.

OnlyFans "rolled over" and implemented age verification because they saw the writing on the wall, but more importantly, they figure they're so unique and big, that people will verify because they have no alternative--and they'll be protected, because they have the cash to litigate.

You should watch that webinar, and the other videos that preceded it, they're on YouTube and on Corey Silverstein's channel. People have been ringing the bell for a long time.


EDIT:

Did I see someone mention that OnlyFans models do not promote? I build landing pages for OF models and they hustle hard. Harder than you would think. They spend anywhere between 20-30 hours a week working on promotion and marketing. And the Instagram models? Double that, because they're creating mainstream AND adult content. It's a lot of labor.

Keep in mind:

Yet very little to no legal action was taken by any companies in the adult industry to try and prevent it in any of the states that passed, from what i was able to find except the ones mentioned in the original post. Do you know of particular cases other than freedom of speech coalition vs paxton, because that was the only one I could find. Maybe a few others, but very little. Hence the post.

The only way to overcome laws is to take it to court. If we are at a place in time where it's too expensive to fight freedom of expression/speech, then I guess God help us all.

Thanks for your input, appreciate it.

Which post did you read that said this? I don't see that posted anywhere.

The big tubes have the money and resources and will be affected most by the laws.

If they don't try it then likely their lawyers tell them it's a hopeless case.

Proves the theory that AV is aimed to harm mainstream porn and porn productions and that age/children is just the excuse

I didn't spend hours researching before I put up the post. Some people don't even spend 30 seconds to read a post before interjecting their :2 cents: so certainly there is a chance I missed something. That's why I said:

I did see some info about pornhub, but then got busy with something else. Otherwise, didn't find much. Figured, why not put up a post and see what others have to say.

There is absolutely no question that these laws are aimed at harming the adult industry. Read how they are written, it's a dead giveaway.

Clip:


Whole thing:


What we voted for:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Vought

Libz pwnd 🍿😎🍿

Imagine knowing all of that and letting these traitor fucks shit up and adult industry forum with their support of it. :helpme

Or they have another timetable with a similar goal but another plan

Most likely this as well.

Seconded thanks for the update. Another reason Mr. New Row Link was put up ass the new frontman.

They want intrusive eye-D to do anything digital.

There are still some gaps to work within.

Some guys don't even have the cookie warnings.

They want to do away with the Freedom of Information Act, or avoid the rules. Nice. So much for free press, transparency and accountability. Where do these people come from, but more importantly how are they in any sort of position of power? Yikes!

Bingo.
You morons aren’t an “industry” you’re simply a group of losers banding together to seem relevant.
To other chat board members……..

We voted for this, to pwn da libz.

Wait until this part kicks in:

"Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot. It should be outlawed. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered."

https://static.heritage.org/project2...rship_FULL.pdf

Page 5

🍿😎🍿

Geezus, what in the actual fuck?! Wonder if anyone has been able to find these sacred plans of theirs?

Seem relevant to who, you?

You can always start your own bromance post and talk about all the OGs. Sounds exciting! :1orglaugh

Just a word of advice to you or any others that feel it's appropriate to attempt to silence anyone from leaving comments. Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right that allows for the open exchange of ideas and information and plays a crucial role in promoting accountability and transparency. The attempt to suppress freedom of speech through attacks or intimidation, is bordering on the same level as what these very laws have done. :2 cents:

A few things I forgot to reply on:

True. I can't speak on other countries, but in the US, you should also make every attempt possible to get (unfair and/or unconstitutional) laws changed, or make sure they don't get passed.

Pretty sure this will happen sooner, rather than later. They will start, how do they like to say it "setting examples" and/or "setting precedence" for future cases.

I thought the Freedom of Speech Coalition was sort of the equivalent, but for adult? Both organizations advocate for First Amendment rights. The Freedom of Speech Coalition (FSC) focuses on freedom of expression within the adult entertainment industry. Both engage in political advocacy and lobbying to advance their interests. The FSC lobbies at local, state, and national levels for the adult industry. Now here is a significant difference and could be one of the reasons they haven't done more. Amount raised in 2023:

FSC: $1.4 Million
NRA: $178 Million

Attorney fees are a big part of the problem. You would think more would want to protect their interest, or perhaps there is not much to protect. I suppose we'll see what other companies get sued, because at that point they'll be forced to hire an attorney.

Side note: Isn't that one of the many contributing factors and/or reasons incarcerations rates are so high? People get stuck with public defenders (because they can't afford insane attorney fees) who do nothing for them. But, that's a whole other can of worms.

Welcome to America, land of the ______ home of the _______?

You decide!

I need you guys to think about something for a minute.

The bread and butter for many of you is traffic. You sell it, trade it, leverage it, and make money by directing it to your affiliate subscriptions. You even get other webmasters to sign up for affiliate programs and you get a cut.

Have you considered what kind of power that is to wield? There's so much free smut out there it boggles my grey matter, yet you guys, get dudes to PAY FOR IT!

If you put even a little of your mojo to direct your marks to raise hell about these AV laws, 4 Chan would tip their hats to you.

Bingo! Thanks for sharing your valuable input. :thumbsup

And if enough people raise hell, that's when shit happens. There are many ways that can be accomplished. It's typically most effective if it involves cutting off money somewhere.

The problem is, the 'big companies' in adult these days, don't really care any longer, they're making their money, just like the FSC does in the background.

The more 'webmasters' that fold, the more money these larger companies will make.

We made our beds, now we must lay in them.

This has been on the horizon for years, we (collectively) did absolutely fuck all about it, all it took was a slight whisper of what Acaia was doing and the entire industry went ape-shit... All it took was a whisper about what was going to happen to the Sweets and the entire industry went ape-shit... All it took was what happened to Max Hardcore and the entire industry went ape-shit... COPA, COPA2, etc, etc...

As more and more companies grew, pushing out the smaller ones, reducing the size of the affiliate market, nobody cared about the overall adult industry any more, just ensuring they can grow their businesses while diminishing the need for affiliates.

We fucked ourselves, with the helping hand of those large adult companies so many people booklick.

Its been an 'adapt or die' industry for at least 10 years, the writing has been on the wall, nobody stopped to read it instead, they started throwing shit at the wall to see what would stick...

mix of ideologies.
Why care?

It's hardly small when over a billion people visit pornsites daily.

The problem is that there is no collective 'solidarity', even at times like this.

And look at this forum, the premiere adult webmaster forum. Half of the posts are people fighting with each other.

And then you will get the usual type who will immediately say 'this is a great thing, only a Satan worshipper would think otherwise!" whilst themselves never making any attempt in all their years as an adult webmaster to install age verification on their sites voluntarily. And some of them will try to make a buck from selling age verification solutions.

And porn fans themselves just seem bizarrely passive. Compare with gamers who are up in arms in their millions against the decision by itch.io and Steam to drop adult games.