Don’t people realize there are hundreds of free porn video sites besides Pornhub? With bigger selection too because the lesser known sites usually don’t get half their content DMCAed.
Paying money for a VPN just to access ONE free porn site? Sigh. I really hate web 3.0
Peak French stupidity, this isn’t about protecting kids - it’s about building surveillance infrastructure. Back in 2024, critics already called this the foundation for a “Great Firewall of France”. Once you have the legal framework to block websites and force ISPs to implement monitoring, mission creep is inevitable.
The technical approach is laughably naive. They’re essentially creating a centralized system that could easily become a database of citizen sexual preferences. Even with their “double anonymity,” you’re still creating digital fingerprints and metadata trails.
Most importantly, it won’t work. Kids will just use VPNs - the same way adults are already doing. You’re not protecting anyone; you’re just pushing everyone toward circumvention tools while normalizing government control over what adults can access online.
It’s perfectly French because it combines maximum bureaucratic complexity with zero practical benefit, all while creating new opportunities for state overreach. Classic.
i think it should be a little harder for a child to watch anal prolapse fisting porn than “click yes if you’re of legal age”….
but… not a good excuse for creating a citizen surveillance database.Fair point on the current system being theater, but here’s the thing - any centralized age verification system creates exactly the surveillance database you’re worried about.
The “harder than clicking yes” solutions all have the same fundamental flaw: they require collecting and storing sensitive data that becomes a honeypot for both state actors and bad actors. Upload your ID? Now there’s a database linking your identity to your viewing habits. Credit card verification? Same problem, plus you’re creating financial trails.
The technical reality is that determined kids will circumvent anything you put in place. We already saw this play out - VPN registrations exploded 1,000% in France within 30 minutes. You’re not actually protecting kids; you’re just normalizing data collection on adults while teaching every teenager in the country how to use Tor.
Better approach would be device-level parental controls that parents can configure without creating centralized databases. Let Apple, Google, Microsoft handle age verification through their existing account systems where the data stays local. That way you get actual protection without building the infrastructure for a surveillance state.
The French solution gives you the worst of both worlds - ineffective protection AND mass surveillance. Classic government efficiency.
that’s a lack of imagination….
just because i can’t think of a great solution doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
off the top of my head, here’s a system without a centralized surveillance database:- porn site gives you a random token,
- you then hash that with a time-stamp,
- get the token signed by your government ID system (like a dmv),
- return the signed hash.
- the government only knows that you used age verification for something somewhere….
now the hard part is just explaining cryptographic signatures and hashes to people….
of course people could still give a kid a verified account, but at least it’s harder for them to access it, i don’t need perfection….
Amen
I hate how VPN access is the scaffolding holding the building up making things look normal. You can visit all your normal web sites, you can bypass georestrictions, you can be a little less tracked than you might otherwise be. But what happens when they decide to do away with that scaffolding and we all find out they tore down the house behind it while we were enjoying “normalcy”. Too much of making the web functional depends on vpns and adblocking. We shouldn’t have to do this stuff and Chromes adblocking scandle should impact millions of users all around the world unilaterally removing adblocking from the web. I fear for the day we have a US only internet and a global internet, not just on paper, but in actual practice.
I’m pretty satisfied as a subscriber. Slowly using proton mail for more and more important accounts. Constant usage of the VPN. Trying to use the calendar more but still haven’t broken my Google Calendar habits. Proton Drive I use over google; I just need a Linux desktop application. Proton pass, still haven’t given that a go. Comfortable with KeepassXC and managing the backups myself. Proton Docs, it’s OK. Solid start. Hoping that notes partnership/acquisition eventually replaces Google Keep for me as a cloud notes application. I have pretty strong confidence now in the company regardless of the slow Linux developments
Not sure where I got it form, but I have a Proton VPN client on Linux. It is pretty barebone, but it works.
Personally I just pay the 12,10$ for Bitwarden and use SimpleLogin aliasses together with that.
I just miss Microsoft Office on Linux, but that has nothing to do with Proton.
At first I suspected this was the French government demanding that 40% of the videos be made in europe using the French language.
Which is weird since I often don’t hear much spoken dialogue in most porn films other than fake moans and and orgasms. Also my focus tends to be elsewhere…
“AHHH oui oui très bien! Plus fort s’il te plaît”
Just hits different.
Stop with the classy French French! I want vulgar Canadian French.
“Ahh tabernack! T’es une vrai p’tite pute! T’fesse va ê’re plein de ma cum comme u’poutine!”
“Mais fuck you! Plus vite MAINTENANT… OUAI YEAH! COMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE ÇÇÇÇÇAAAAA!!! Fuck me t’as une monstre cock!”
O.M.G.
That would block me instantly but I would have a good laugh
I’ll assume that “oui” is “yes”. The rest…umm…
“tres bien” is “very good”
“si vous plait” is like “please”
“plus fort” is like “more strength”
I’ve never studied or learned French, but you can pick up some of this stuff from “throwaway” French in other context and the etymology shared with other languages.
So, basically just the stock U.S. porn phrase translated to French.
I’d argue that “plus fort” would mean “harder” in this context but I’m not an expert
😏 this person knows
Agreed. I tend toward more literal translations for instruction/explanation – it made things stick better for me when learning Spanish. But, yes, in context “harder” is a definitely a more useful translation.
Try searching for French maid.
once again porn leads technology
Dr. Cox was right: “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.'”
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Tumblr the Depraved?
I hate how hard this made me laugh
I still miss og tumblr and my little porn account i had going there.
Does oglaf count as porn?
Asking for a friend.Well, it’s blocked by my porn blocker, so I’d say yes
Scared to click, someone pls provide context
These are comics, often with a nsfw gag, it’s safe to click on, it’s very mild.
Lol, there’s even a warning. The first one I saw was fucking hilarious, thanks for the recommendation!
Oh, she’s trying!
I had totally forgotten oglaf existed, thanks for the reminder!
Bro’s name is Dr. Cocks
I remember when the French used to respond to this shit with fire instead
Now we get tear gased and shot with rubber bullets until we become disabled
Bub, that’s always happened.
Well actually in the past it was executed
yea indeed, but they do it pretty much every time on everyone, dunno if that was the same before
France uses a hybrid healthcare system like Australia, doesn’t it? Disabling your own populace in a country with public healthcare seems like a bit of a own goal tbh.
ofc their goal is not to pay more, it’s to silence and harm people for standing up against the government, or for having some political opinions
The other reason is that some police units in charge of handling demonstrations like brutality, feeling powerful and harming people. They rarely get convicted because they can’t be identified, and even if they are, they’re pretty much only fired and don’t have any prison sentence
I have to admit, of all the nations on earth, I never expected this sort of puritanical theatrical authoritarianism out of the french.
To clarify, the french didn’t ban pornhub, it’s the company behind pornhub who decided to deny it’s access in France to protest a law proposal that is currently getting examined in parliament
Ps : The law in question would require all porn sites to verify the age of its users
Ps : The law in question would require all porn sites to verify the age of its users
This is how young boys learn to computer. It won’t do shit to stop anything. It’s a waste of time.
Well – this might be more succesful in boostering the IT skills of France’s next generation than any curriculum reform.
How do you know it’s just boys? Seems an odd assumption, considering the nature of omission of information with this.
Because the majority of porn watchers are male at about a 4:1 ratio. They aren’t saying it was exclusively boys either, likely just what made sense from their perspective at the time.
The law in question would require all porn sites to verify the age of its users
Isn’t that already the case on a lot of the internet?
I think this law requires you to upload a photo of your ID and says that it’s the website’s fault if underage people use it and they face a hefty fine. It’s a lot more than the standard “click to pinky promise that you’re definitely 18” because PornHub already has that.
They’ve been trying to block it for many years now.
France has been going downhill for quite some time. Many proposals for chat control and tracking… even recently, we got a law proposal that aimed at banning E2EE 😵
Damn, the whole world really is going authoritarian.
When it’s not about protecting kids, it’s about fighting drugs
They always have a “good” reason to remove our freedom, because apparently security seems much more important, and it seems like it’s the only way to do it. Lol.
Authoritarians have embraced internet culture somehow.
I’m curious how they got Gen Z so curtailed.
Politicians are always trying to ban encryption in every country. I remember it happening constantly in the 90s. And it happens because politicians don’t understand that you can’t ban math
Wait 'til they do it. You’re underestimating them.
They should actually take to the streets (again). Not joking. What is this nanny-state BS?
Democracy and general Egalitarianism is so 2008. Authoritarianism is what’s hot now.
I can’t wait for a severe overcorrection
Democracy and general Egalitarianism is so 2008
Bold of you to assume it ever was!
I know right? Aren’t there nude beaches in the south of France where people will fuck in broad daylight with others watching?
French citizens please confirm (for uh, science, and not vacation planning)!
Yes, there are. But you misunderstood the news: France didn’t block pornhub, pornhub blocked France as a protest against a new law.
Age verification in a porn database is odd to me, from a privacy point of view AND a massive undertaking for the porn company. And then there’s the puritan culture of wanting to block teenagers from watching porn? Seems a very anti-French thing to me, but I’m also pretty ignorant of actual French culture. I assumed French culture would be like, once you have the urges, you’ll go seeking, and if you need to look at the internet in the safety of your own bedroom, is better than unexpected pregnancies to satisfy urges.
What’s the deal with all of this, anyway? What are the arguments here?
I’m not aware of the exact motivations of all the actors. What follows are my guesses.
My guess would be that
- Some député want to protect children from the most dangerous types of porn (which I can hear on some level, porn can be addictive for some people and can lead to negative behaviour, children are always more sensitive).
- Some probably think that all porn is bad and want to prevent anyone from consuming it, this would only be a first step for those.
- Some definitely want to be able to spy on everyone and use this as an excuse to further reduce privacy and freedom
You might not be aware depending where you are from, but France is on a slippery slope towards Fascism, the far right is gaining more power every day, a lot of people think it is very plausible that a far right president is elected on the next election (2027), along with a parliament’s majority.
Germany had this since forever, it’s just how offline laws translate to the internet: There’s a difference between a) ordinary nudity, b) eroticism and c) straight-up porn. The latter was always 18+, in video rental stores etc. they would have a separate section and if you didn’t look of age you’d get ID’d.
You can’t order alcohol online in Germany without a proper age check, and the same applies to porn. For paid offerings that’s no issue, payment providers offer age checks (your bank knows how old you are and them vouching suffices), for free sites it’s a no-go, noone is going to go through the hassle. Especially as you can escape off the German-language internet onto the international one and merely click through an “are you 18” banner.
Notably, pornhub isn’t blocked in Germany – neither from the German side, nor from pornhub’s. Very occasionally DNS bans are ordered when a site without age checks tries to specifically target the German market. Mostly though it’s down to German google not serving up those international porn sites which in the end is good enough for the youth protection authorities because the point is not to make access impossible, it’s to make sure that youth not ready for content doesn’t stumble across it. And once you’re actively seeking, you’re ready, the hoops you have to jump through are proof of the “active” part. YMMV on “not ready for porn with 18”, back in the days there was still softcore. On free TV. Probably won’t hurt kids to not start out with gonzo.
What are the arguments
“Protect delicate children’s eyes from seeing nudity”
I think that’s about it
Passings laws we don’t like?
NO PORN FOR YOU!!!
Isn’t protest coooooo you guys?
The percentages of respondents in surveys on infidelity answering “not a moral issue” from France are a bit of a cultural difference (from Australian perspective, anyway)
Blocking porn has got to be the most “why even bother” thing
Political theater. “Won’t somebody think of the children?” is an easy win for politicians.
Plus an excuse to collect more data.
Yeah the point is just to soften the populace to the idea. Our fucking PM covered for pedophile priests in a Catholic school 30 years ago, he doesn’t give any fuck about kids.
deleted by creator
It’s not about blocking porn.
It’s always about control. Conservatives want to control how you consume sexual content.
It’s not about that either. It’s about connecting photo ID to browsing profiles and deanonymising the internet.
¿Por que los dos?
VPN companies and data brokers have a financial incentive to lobby for intrusive age-verification and restrictions, and prudish politicians are conveniently present in every political system. The porn lobby is powerful, but it seems they’ve been losing this battle recently. Or maybe they’re cutting deals with the data brokers, who knows.
Politically speaking, it’s easy money. You pander to the conservatives with blocking propositions, get votes.
*Who is going to champion the flip side?!"
Me. Porn is fine. Teach your children how to handle it. Teach them that it’s not realistic and some of it is straight-up dangerous. Put a filter on your internet if you’re too scared to talk to your kids about uncomfortable topics.
Man it’s porn, not guns. Children should not be near it!
Oh wait this is France
Anyway, I agree with you. We’re talking about regular ol garden variety porn. Everyone will probably see it at some point. Parents can limit what their kids see until the kids become smart enough to bypass filters. At which point they can probably handle seeing pennis n vagene.
Like Reddit or YouTube with proper keywords didn’t exist
Been there, done that
Reminds me of when my buddies discovered our friend’s YouTube account… He only had one public playlist, and it was 100% full of softcore porn. Nothing else. It was all softcore porn. We gave him a pretty good ribbing for that one, and still make a point of reminding him that better porn sites exist every time it comes up.
We gave him a pretty good ribbing for that one,
I guess you could say he got ribbed for his pleasure.
Always hide your playlists and subscriptions haha
But softcore has the benefit to help you retain normal libido and to not be dependent of more hardcore stuff
Meanwhile in Australia, they just passed a bill requiring social media to verify the age of their users to make sure they’re over 16
Ouch
What a great way to prevent minors from living their lives
I feel like reddit and YouTube are completely different leagues when it comes to porn… Porn is the only reason I haven’t deleted my last reddit account. YT doesn’t even really have real porn…
YT doesn’t even really have real porn
Indeed, but there’s still things to find if you’re a young scared kiddo, and I’d say it’s pretty soft so it’s okay
Reminds me of the running joke I had with a French bloke in a place were I worked in about how Jacquie-Et-Michelle (NSFW) was an unmissable part of French Culture, which none of our other colleagues seem to - or at least admitted to - get.
this only means that americans dont know about proton vpn
it could also mean that americans already use a vpn service.
Which they should
im in california, browsing the internet using proton as i type this.
France underestimated the power of horny
Have you met the French? There’s a bunch of English sex words brought in from French! Most notably is ménage à trois, for a threesome. The smoking a cigarette after sex cliché is pretty French too.
ménage à trois
Should be “plan à trois” I believe
My understanding is that ménage à trois says the three are ‘living together’ with the sex being implied via innuendo, whereas plan à trois is more directly about the sex act itself.
I have no idea what is correct French, but the first phrase is the one that is used in English, I have never heard the second
Alright! I’m a French speaker and I’ve never heard “ménage à trois”. It could be correct, but that’s old language. I believe “plan à trois” is the new thing we say.
Good to know!
Steal language fragments AND butcher them, it’s the English way!
We retaliate by butchering English when speaking it :)
Is this international unity?
wtf, france?
How about you just parent your children? But it’s not about the children, that’s just always the convenient excuse
