As more and more states pass laws targeting “pornographic material” in books and online, they are repeatedly running up against a problem: The Bible has not just a few passages that could be considered indecent
The law makes it so a person can sue a website operator for making explicit content available without using a commercial ID verification service. This law applies if the site’s contents contain > 33% of whatever-the-legal-term-for-basically-porn is.
It was made because a legislator is unable to figure out how to set up content filters for their kids: https://wtop.com/virginia/2023/07/why-am-i-getting-threats-seriously-your-porn-va-state-senator-sparks-outrage-with-age-verification-law/
So sites like pornhub now simply need to host two sfw items for every porn video?
How does the law work? Does it force websites outside of VA to use ID verification, or are ISPs requried to block no compliant sites?
I’m but a mere mortal neckbeard on the internet so I could be wrong here but…
…it’s enforcement mechanism is sort of like the Texas abortion law. Please understand, I don’t want to risk trivializing the cruelty of Texas’ law by comparing it to porn, but it’s enforcement mechanism seems well-known at this point for me to use as an example.
They’re relying on residents of Virginia to enforce the law by enabling citizens to sue porn sites if the porn site doesn’t use a commercial service to verify IDs. The state itself cannot sue an organization under this law. But nothing is stopping some political organization from bankrolling a few lawsuits from “concerned Virginians”.
Some sites like Pornhub have decided to just block access to IPs geolocated in Virginia so that they can say they aren’t serving content to Virginians.
This law does not force ISPs to block content, nor does it prohibit individual people from accessing porn. It puts the responsibility on the site hosting content.
Now the ultra-terrifying thing that nobody has been talking about: Virginia has a LOT of datacenters – odds are if you’re hitting almost anything on the internet, you’re hitting a service that has servers in Virginia or depends on servers in Virginia. I’m afraid that Virginia lawmakers may try to start legislating based on this.
