So wait, as a UK citizen I can use Pornhub's VPN to circumvent the UK Government's "Porn Filter", a system that's run by..... Pornhub.
I had no idea that PornHub is in charge of filtering adult content for the UK government. Got any more info about this relationship?
> AgeID, has been developed by MindGeek, a company that also owns several pornographic websites including Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn.
> AgeID currently uses official documents such as driver's licences and passports to verify a person's age - but submitting a mobile number tied to a contract phone could be another option.
> The tool is due to be implemented from April 2018 across all adult sites within the UK in accordance with The Digital Economy Act 2017 that was laid out by the government.
It will be regulated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
It looks like this:
rating RTA-5042-1996-1400-1577-RTA
Requiring people to register with PII is just asking for trouble.
It's such a weird area.
The system was mandated by UK law. Mindgeek isn't the only provider that makes an age verification service, though they are the largest (since they own most of the largest pornographic brands on the web).
David Cameron was the one who pushed for the law that put all of this into effect; Pornhub isn't remotely responsible. They're just creating a verification service that they're now legally required to run to comply with the law.
Edit, so after reading - the filter is less a filter, and more mandated age-check verification? Isn't that like claiming a guy checking ID's at the door to a pub is an alcohol filter?
It's a gigantic conflict of interest that plays out exactly how you'd expect. I've never been carded going to a bar near my former university.
Breweries and bars might be different too
It's not in the bars' financial interest to create a minimum drinking age via regulatory capture just so they can hire bouncers, or accept bribes or sell fake IDs or whatever. That's analogous to the insinuation I picked up upthread (if I read that comment correctly). Expecting industries to self-regulate until they show themselves incapable of doing so is pretty standard.
The law is a filter because of the obvious chilling effect: do you really want to risk an inevitable leak where your co-workers will potentially look up info about your porn habits tied to your real name?
Why would it have your 'habits' tied to it? It's meant to ensure you're over 18 or whatever age - what possible reason would it have to identify individual URLs a particular identity visited?
Money. Marketing. Targeted advertising. Etc, etc, etc. Pornhub (and others) are completely free and use more bandwidth than I can wrap my head around. How do you think they pay for that stuff?
Pornhub sells a subscription service with additional features / content.
Renting a porn vhs and having the guy photocopy and file your ID is a much bigger deterrant than just having to show your ID to the clerk.
I believe there was some bureaucracy involved and maybe a "porn tax" you had to pay to disable the filter, but maybe this VPN service effectively solves both of those problems.
Sure, for the low, low price of $12/month.
Though I didn't actually RTFM, was posted elsewhere here.
So unlimited free use, but restricted speed and injected ads. Not horrible, but I'd definitely read the T&C very carefully, I didn't see any mention of what logs they keep.
This is separate from ISP supplied filters in that it applies to the porn companies themselves, not the end consumers. Obviously a company like Mind Geek having your ID and all your porn browsing history is not worrisome at all.
1: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/03/age-verificati...