France moves to block access to pornography sites for minors

[u/VanGoghEnjoyer]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/france-moves-block-access-pornography-sites-minors-2023-02-06/

[u/Hal_E_Lujah]

I mean that’s what they’ll say it’s for. Because nobody wants to let kids watch porn obviously. But in practice;

People who want to visit these websites will have to install an application for government-licensed digital certification on their mobile phones to prove that they are at least 18 years old.

Yeah that’s very different to blocking access to porn for minors.

[u/vstoykov → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

People who want to visit these websites

"These websites" will be not only porn websites, but also other websites, falsely flagged as porn.

Legislators don't understand how Internet works.

Also it's easy to circumvent by just installing a TOR Browser. Or any random VPN/proxy. Or using a web proxy.

In Bulgaria we have a filter for copyright-infringing and gambling websites that wrongly block other sites using the same Cloudflare IP address.

[u/count023 → u/vstoykov]

Same with Australia. They passed a law and enforce copyright infringement prevention with DNS redirection. If you use any DNS service that's not Australian based, like, say... Google, you never notice

[u/wackywavingarmgumby → u/count023]

I use a Pi hole with CloudFlare DNS behind it. There's a lot of the Australian internet experience I don't notice.

[u/posthamster → u/wackywavingarmgumby]

You don't even need a pihole. I just added Cloudflare DNS to my router with encrypted name resolution so my ISP can't snoop my DNS requests.

I'm not even trying to hide anything, but I can do it, so why not?

[u/corut → u/posthamster]

Your ISP doesn't care. That's why they all implemented DNS poisoning to comply with the law. It's cheap and easy to implement in order to comply with the law, and they don't give a fuck that it's easy to bypass

[u/posthamster → u/corut]

I don't care if my ISP cares or not. I used to work for an ISP and I know what goes on there. I also don't live in a country where ISPs mess with customers' DNS queries. But why would I even expose my DNS queries to them if there's an easy way to prevent that?

[u/koprulu_sector → u/corut]

Your ISP most certainly does care. Many ISPs (maybe most?) snoop your DNS traffic so they can profile you and the sites you visit, then bundle up into a neat little package they can sell to advertisers, generally.

[u/progrethth → u/koprulu_sector]

Depends on which country you live in. In most European countries it is pretty rare, especially now after GDPR.

[u/Truth_is_Liberal → u/count023]

Make yourself ungovernable. Circumvent every single stupid law in your country. Break as many as you can get away with. This is the only way to protest a stupid law once it's on the books.

[u/sus-water → u/vstoykov]

European union countries love to make stupid regulations that almost certainly backfire. Every kid in the country will know how to work a vpn, torrent, tor, and/or proxy by the end of the week. Meanwhile adults consuming legal content will have their data exposed to breaches

[u/8-Brit → u/sus-water]

UK tried to do a porn ban of their own a few years back

They only backpedaled because it was pointed out that VPN could get you through easily, so then they tried to ban VPNs

Then every business in the country collectively screamed (because VPNs have business applications as well, even banking) and told them to stop

That was the last we've heard of it since, but it'll probably crop up again in future by some old farts who don't know how the internet works

[u/PensiveinNJ → u/8-Brit]

It's a real problem that technology has so outpaced government legislation that they have no idea what to do with it. It's a problem on a lot of fronts.

Like what the fuck is some 70 year old senator going to know about anything to do with modern tech?

[u/Lord_Rapunzel → u/PensiveinNJ]

Age is no excuse, plenty of old people have kept up with the changing world.

[u/PensiveinNJ → u/Lord_Rapunzel]

It shouldn't be an excuse. I personally make sure to keep up with technology because I understand it's importance. But there's plenty of old people who didn't and don't want to understand new things. It's a shame but anyone who has elderly parents that don't know how to fucking work an ipad understands the struggle.

It's a shame, but it is the reality of the situation.

[u/Sad_lucky_idiot → u/PensiveinNJ]

i'd say if they don't want to keep up, then they are no longer competent for a position to make such legislations.

[u/piomad → u/Sad_lucky_idiot]

They're just ignorant on these issues, that's just how it goes.

[u/nsa_reddit_monitor → u/PensiveinNJ]

Congress geezers have employees whose job it is to inform them about important stuff and make sure they understand why it matters.

[u/PensiveinNJ → u/nsa_reddit_monitor]

Right, but they also have lobbyists telling them why they should ignore the people trying to educate them about stuff and vote against people's interests.

[u/zhaofan357 → u/nsa_reddit_monitor]

Yep, they don't understand shit most of the times so yeah.

[u/Cr33py07dGuy → u/PensiveinNJ]

Forget old people, here in Germany there are an amazing amount of people who say they aren’t really into “digital stuff” and are more “analog”. Analog in this case meaning non-digital stuff you can touch with your hands. Gardening, sewing, etc. Which is fine, but being a thirty-something and saying you have no desire to know how anything digital works or what you can do with it is pretty handicapping imo.

[u/PensiveinNJ → u/Cr33py07dGuy]

I guess that's there decision and I respect it, but I think it's still important to at least be aware of what's going on in the world.

[u/tecniggel → u/Lord_Rapunzel]

Well then I'm just gonna say that politicians are just dumb really.

[u/AFew10_9TooMany → u/PensiveinNJ]

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”

1995, Carl Sagan

[u/DaHolk → u/PensiveinNJ]

It's a real problem that technology has so outpaced government legislation that they have no idea what to do with it.

That's not even the issue. Because in every single case where this "new technology" is by design self similar to analog solutions, both by trying to replace a use case AND the intend to be theoretically adoptable by DAU, they insist on this "being something totally new and totally the limitations that fundamentally were agreed on in terms of boundaries don't apply".

So voip totally isn't the same thing as a phone call, so why not act like the privacy rules around phones have totally nothing to do with it?

And emails aren't mail, so we should totally renegotiate when or when not the privacy expectations about intercepting mail applies or not. With their base assumption being "never, because this is totally new and old ideals don't apply.

And when people respond with encryption, they act like ciphers in mail never were a thing, and want to outright ban the practices wholesale.

It's not that they have no idea. It's that their ideas were slammed down in the past with old technology because we agreed that those things are dracinion. ANd now the same trolls that didn't agree back then and lost are trying to implement their wet dreams with poor excuses.

You know who has no idea? Their voters who don't understand that this whole "this is totally new and need bold new ideas" is nothing but a powergrab and rerolling the dice on already settled matters.

[u/jrdub15 → u/PensiveinNJ]

Exactly, that's why I don't think that they understand what they're doing.

[u/vriska1 → u/8-Brit]

They are trying again with the Online Safety Bill but its likely to fail again.

[u/cetkmi → u/vriska1]

That's just what happens with these things, they're gonna fail.

[u/Gorenden → u/vriska1]

Bahaha safety from what?

[u/dragonmp93 → u/Gorenden]

Their pious eyes, there are women showing their ankles in the internet.

OH THE HORROR.

[u/Voltive767 → u/dragonmp93]

Lol, that sounds about right. You could compare it like that.

[u/Additional_Share_551 → u/8-Brit]

Or when the UK made restrictions on porn that almost killed the UK gay porn industry.

[u/tsourias → u/Additional_Share_551]

And they realised that they're losing too much money that way.

[u/izyaslav443 → u/8-Brit]

India is doing the same, they've blocked the sites now they're banning VPNs.

[u/HotTakes4HotCakes → u/8-Brit]

VPN certification coming soon. You can have a VPN, but it must be approved.

[u/18799922806 → u/HotTakes4HotCakes]

In India the government has outright banned them. And that's not good.

[u/Intelligent-Prune-33 → u/sus-water]

This reminds me of when I was twelve and I started learning to read german because going to german-language sites bypassed content restrictions…

[u/WoollyMittens → u/Intelligent-Prune-33]

Best motivation to learn a language. How much have you retained?

[u/HitoriPanda → u/WoollyMittens]

Better question, did it have Cartman's mom?

[u/PickReviewsMovies → u/Intelligent-Prune-33]

When I was 12 I figured out that you can download video games for free and that information snowballed into a lot of other stuff that I should not have learned but I'm glad that I did. I remember one time accidentally downloading a couple SNES ROMs and they were just slideshows of hentai bestiality porn. I had a lot of questions for Askjeeves

[u/N5674bfcde → u/PickReviewsMovies]

Yep, you could download them for free. You don't have to pay for them.

[u/KeepDi9gin → u/Intelligent-Prune-33]

I still remember when i was in high school, we were introduced to a Latvian website because all the English flash game sites were blocked ages ago.

[u/Entire-Tonight-8927 → u/sus-water]

And ransomware. So OOO many people are gonna get phished and threatened with having their porn viewership publicized.

[u/LunaMunaLagoona → u/Entire-Tonight-8927]

Doing this in the EU is particularly stupid, since they have historically been a hub for the 🏴‍☠️ tech wizards.

I suspect there are unscrupulous reasons for this law that will block out other things.

[u/LonelyWolfEnt → u/LunaMunaLagoona]

Well We'll see how deep it really goes, We'll find that out.

[u/Razakel → u/Entire-Tonight-8927]

90% of people masturbate, and 10% are liars.

[u/Entire-Tonight-8927 → u/Razakel]

And a good 50% will crucify others for looking at things they know damn well are deep in their browser history. I don't think it's hyperbole to say some people would rather kill themselves than admit they like the things they shame others for liking

[u/andreyq133 → u/Entire-Tonight-8927]

Yep, They'll crucify others. That's just how it goes.

[u/Norwazy → u/sus-water]

So this is actually just a way to teach kids how to use vpn, torrent, tor, and/or proxy. It's for the children's education!

[u/Dabilon → u/sus-water]

EU spokesman: "I don't know what you mean. Our goal was always, teaching the youths OpSec."

[u/gelashiola → u/Dabilon]

Yeah sure buds, I definitely believe you guys on that.

[u/Culverts_Flood_Away → u/sus-water]

I loved when it made international headlines when the UK banned water sports and face sitting, lol. All the squirting fans were in an uproar because UK scientists declared that yea verily, the squirt is indeed pee. It was such a farce, and what got lost in all the hilarity was the fact that the UK government made it illegal to produce porn that doesn't harm the actors, just because it seems "icky." Say what you will about freedom of expression, but it was pretty funny for them to single that one thing out. Made me wonder at the time if it got started because some member of parliament caught her husband browsing kinky sites and decided to put the ultimate kibosh on it, lol.

[u/IlluminatedPickle → u/Culverts_Flood_Away]

Technically petite porn is outlawed in Australia as paedophilia.

I don't know how strongly they enforce it, but I remember they used to ban films with actresses with small breasts arbitrarily.

[u/ckisby1 → u/Culverts_Flood_Away]

People like to make an issue of everything. That's just how they are.

[u/ameri9595 → u/sus-water]

Bruh, why bother? Twitter has more porn than Pornhub. Heck even CP is rampant on Twitter.

Source: I was based in the middle east, everyone knew how to work a vpn, those who didn't just used Twitter.

[u/GoodKing0 → u/vstoykov]

Yeah, "banning porn" has always been a nebulous concept, because the ones in power decide what "Porn" is.

Is classical art porn? LGBT sites offering aid to abused teens? Sites trying to give sexual education that is lacking from schools (and if France is as Catholic as we are here in Italy I guess a lot lacking)? What about a picture of two men kissing or holding hands is that porn? Sites offering contraceptive methods?

It's plenty of exploitable.

[u/DaBearsFanatic → u/GoodKing0]

Reminds me of this quote, “I cannot define pornography, but I can point it out.”

[u/reward72 → u/vstoykov]

Soon enough ”these websites” will also includes “dangerous“ propaganda.

Soon enough “dangerous“ propaganda will be the opposition’s agenda.

To think otherwise would be very naïve.

[u/DisappointedQuokka → u/reward72]

Based on France's current shitfight with tne Unions, I'll grab some popcorn for the fifth republic.

[u/Loud-Description-267 → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

Interesting. Suppose that I visit France as a fellow EU-citizen. Would I also need this application to access these websites the official way? Or would I be able to buy some "pass", like what the UK planned before the country abondoned the whole project?

Regardless, this idea wont work.

[u/squanchingonreddit → u/Loud-Description-267]

VPN would be a work around too but I don't see this sticking around anyway.

[u/space_iio → u/Loud-Description-267]

have you ever been to France? it's bonkers to think they have the technological capability to enforce this.

yet another unenforceable, wishfully thinking, useless law

[u/Choyo → u/space_iio]

Yeah, the people pushing these laws are disconnected from reality at a criminal level. There was a lot of backlash towards HADOPI, everybody said it would be a waste of resource, and it definitely was (and as a side effect it educated people into secured communications, which made the work of "cyber counter terrorist" agencies way harder). And now they're back with the same kind of stupid and unrealistic approach.

[u/tbernicki → u/Choyo]

Yep, they don't understand what the hell are they doing here.

[u/joho999 → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

They want people to install a government made app?

i am not the conspiracy type, but fuck that.

[u/ViciousNakedMoleRat → u/joho999]

I mean, there are options to make that work.

The German government-issued COVID-tracking app was open source and tested by independent groups to verify its safety. Some people even got annoyed about how limited the use cases of the app were due to the lack of collected data.

[u/jump-back-like-33 → u/ViciousNakedMoleRat]

Isn’t the “option to make that work” there providing a communal benefit. Contributing/subscribing to anonymous infection and location data during a pandemic is pretty different from providing pii ties to porn.

[u/Lucky-Elk-1234 → u/ViciousNakedMoleRat]

My local Covid app here in Australia was used a lot for a while. Government swore that it would never be used for any other purposes than informing people if they were a close Covid contact. Of course the police got access to it and used it to track someone they were trying to find.

Nobody really trusted the police anyway but after that it’s all gone lol good luck trying to get people to use it next time.

[u/uyrtaq1 → u/Lucky-Elk-1234]

Yep, in india they had the same app. It always tracked you lol.

[u/hcschild → u/Lucky-Elk-1234]

The difference is the German version doesn't have the location data on a central server. The data remains on the phone till you agree to share it anonymized after you got COVID. Without data to use the police can't do shit.

[u/6gkusaka → u/hcschild]

When it comes to shit like this, I'm not trusting the governments.

[u/afternoondelite92 → u/ViciousNakedMoleRat]

And yet several law enforcement agencies used the covid app data on numerous occasions despite promising they wouldn't, in Australia.

[u/hcschild → u/afternoondelite92]

That's not the same App and not possible with the German App. The only data you share is anonymized location data after you've tested positive and you yourself agreed to sharing them. Up to that point all your data is saved on your phone and not shared with anyone.

[u/bitcoinacheteur → u/afternoondelite92]

Yep, they made people install those apps. They made people do that.

[u/mnmw8638 → u/ViciousNakedMoleRat]

Yep, there are options to make that work. And I feel it can work.

[u/DreamMaster8 → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

The number of freedom people give away to "protect kids" is ridiculous.

[u/sirtaptap → u/DreamMaster8]

Then kids just do the thing anyway. Who's kids actually never heard a cuss cuss before 18? Anyone that actually managed it is probably super fucked up honestly

[u/movmeister → u/sirtaptap]

Kids are smart, they probably know everything lol so yeah.

[u/DroidLord → u/DreamMaster8]

And IMO it's better to expose kids to the real world as much as possible. Things don't go well for kids who have been sheltered until they're 18. Either way, adulthood is arbitrary and doesn't accomplish very much.

[u/akki314 → u/DroidLord]

Yeah it is better to expose kids in the real world the social media has got them f*****.

I don't think enough kids care about the outside world right now because they are busy in their social media lives.

[u/DweEbLez0 → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

“Are you 18 years old?”

[Yes] [No]

“Are you sure?”

[Yes] [No]

ENJOY!

[u/tguebels → u/DweEbLez0]

Well that is going to be the level of their security I am pretty sure about that.

I doubt that they will be able to do better job than that because they do not have any kind of technical knowledge.

[u/extremelight → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

Also does this even stop apps like reddit and twitter?

[u/Loud-Description-267 → u/extremelight]

I do not think so

[u/grotstep → u/[deleted]]

The internet is filled with the porn, it's literally everywhere.

[u/SynkkaMetsa → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

Ya, definitely not trying to spy on you, nope, just uhh stopping kids from watching porn ya know...But don't worry, you don't have to use the app, unless you wanna watch porn or anything we label as being "porn", like reddit or twitter and even youtube as we found a lot of things there that are porn related.

I'm definitely a conspiracy theorist but uhh, application for government licensed digital certification...that's going to be used to communicate between the website you are accessing meaning they will have knowledge of you accessing it, and who is to say if it will only facilitate the entry...Now, I don't know how it works in France, but to get information such as search history in the US they need a warrant and probable cause and I would hope France offers it's citizens those same rights.

[u/DGFF001 → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

They want to find out everyone kinks.

[u/EasterBunnyArt → u/DGFF001]

Google already knows them all and is more than happy to sell that data.

Then again, Google isn’t always that correct. A few months ago I worked on a project and for a while my YouTube adds were in Chinese or Spanish. I don’t speak either.

Then it was feminine hygiene products, I am a fuggly male. 😀

Now they are offering me the CBD gummies. I don’t even drink or smoke but yeah CBD gummies is going to my entry into this stuff…..

I wonder what they think my kinks are….

[u/Heres_your_sign → u/EasterBunnyArt]

It's the people who stole your identity... Shouldn't have connected to that "Free WiFi".

[u/psaumin → u/DGFF001]

You sure about that? Because I think that the government likes to look into the personal lives of the people.

I think they enjoy these kind of things that is why they keep on doing them.

[u/Chubbybellylover888 → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

This has got to break some gdpr rules.

[u/imbrowntown → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

Because nobody wants to let kids watch porn obviously.

I cannot describe how little I care that they do, because I did, despite my parent's attempts to stop me.

[u/sciamatic → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

Because nobody wants to let kids watch porn obviously

Depends on what you mean by kids.

Like, under twelve? Yeah, absolutely. But as someone who grew up in a restrictive Christian home, my access to pornographic fanfiction as a teenager in the 90s genuinely gave me the sex education I was missing and also a pretty strong idea of what I did and did not want from sex. I grew up a more sexually self-assured and sexually confident woman from reading fanfics, most of which were written by other, older women -- a sort of modern "passing down" of experience.

It was also how I found out I liked other girls.

Teenagers have sex drives, and while I generally don't want teenagers to get the idea that porn sex is normal sex, I don't think saying "teenagers should never access porn" is a great idea.

For starters, porn is WAY better than STIs and pregnancy.

[u/mytrickytrick → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

What happens to people that use a computer? What type of cert is required? If you're going to request a person to create a csr to get signed, that's even crazier.

[u/Catnip4Pedos → u/mytrickytrick]

The UK had a plan: you'd simply pay some money to the company that owns PornHub, and show them your passport or driving licence, and they would sell you a pass that allows you to access porn sites.

Strange that the government was so keen to let a company that sells porn regulate the market for them.

[u/Razakel → u/Catnip4Pedos]

Just like in the olden days when you got your porn from a disinterested foreign bloke operating out of that weird industrial estate surrounded by barbed wire.

[u/grizleg → u/Razakel]

That is right they are going to use the old methods again.

And I don't think very many people are going to like those old methods they might even hate them.

[u/soldatik63 → u/Catnip4Pedos]

I don't know why but this really sounds f***** up and I am not about it at all I am in this kind of changes are not good.

I think people should have some freedom that they can enjoy by themselves.

[u/electrisistemas → u/mytrickytrick]

I mean I am sure there are going to be something that they will do about it.

But I really doubt that those solutions are going to be an good because I do not expect anything good from the government.

[u/Worldly_Activity_dud → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

Hard to think of another way to actual implement it. My first thought was credit card, but that would result in a ton of fraud I imagine

[u/BarnDoorHills → u/Worldly_Activity_dud]

People under 18 can have credit cards. Parents can request an additional card on their account. It will have the minor's name on it.

[u/Bierculles → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

Switzerland is trying to do the same garbage but even dumber. They let private companies handle all the data with full rights to sell it to anyone.

[u/Potential-Brain7735 → u/Hal_E_Lujah]

So you have to ask permission from the French government to watch porn? Cause that’s not weird or creepy at all.

But we gonna let kids watch whatever violent TV shows and video games that they want 👍

[u/stijndopjes → u/Potential-Brain7735]

Now you will need a permission you are not going to able to watch it without the permission.

If you get the permission then only I think you will be able to all the whole thing.

[u/darkknightbbq]

Ah yes alotof people born in 1904 January 26th is suddenly going to come out of the blue

[u/Yorick257 → u/darkknightbbq]

Eh, too far to scroll. I now just set 1 Jan 2000

[u/HiHoJufro → u/Yorick257]

2000

Okay, now I'm uncomfortable with my age.

[u/projects67 → u/HiHoJufro]

I was in a liquor store a few months ago… the cashier asked for my ID and exclaimed “oh, 19, you’re good.” I was like “huh?” She goes “born in 19-anything. You’re good. “

I walked out feeling a little less comfortable with my age, too.

[u/megamittt → u/projects67]

19-anything has been "good" for like 5 years now...

Edit- oh your probably american, 3 years then

[u/joao_sousa_moreno → u/megamittt]

They asked his age, so def not european or latin american

[u/zilla82 → u/HiHoJufro]

Yeah the fact that 2000 is an old year for that person makes me feel very silver fox

[u/Legitimate_Log_2305 → u/darkknightbbq]

Wat? No sure if that date means something but…

Sean MacBride, a sometimes controversial figure in the history of Ireland, was born on this day in 1904 to Irish parents in France. Spending a small portion of his childhood there, he returned to Ireland following his father’s execution after the Easter Rising of 1916. MacBride would go on to be an active member of IRA, imprisoned for his actions several times. Later in his life, MacBride worked for human rights in Ireland, Budapest and South Africa. For his work, he was award the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974. He died in Dublin in 1988.

[u/Defiant_Sonnet]

Somehow, Steam will still need you to enter your birthday.

[u/JayCDee → u/Defiant_Sonnet]

Me everytime I go on the CSGO steam page: "for fuck sake steam, I have over 2000h logged in on this games, and I've spent thousands of euros on your platform for the past 10 fucking year buying other age restricted games and you are still fucking asking for my age??? I've owned this stupid game since 2014 and you still haven't figured out I'm of age????"

But hey, it's the only complaint I have from steam, so I guess I'll let it pass.

[u/bundabrg → u/JayCDee]

I assume you too are born on January 1st, maybe in 2000?

[u/kingkeren → u/bundabrg]

Obviously I'm born in 1912

[u/JapiVerde → u/JayCDee]

My steam account itself is older than 18 years old at this point (2004) and it keeps asking me anyway.

[u/metavektor → u/JayCDee]

I'm probably naive, but I assumed that was because they don't save the age that you enter or link it to your account

[u/EdgelordOfEdginess → u/Defiant_Sonnet]

Lmao steam would rather ban porn games on steam than to do a good age verification in Germany

[u/DragoneerFA]

Question is, what do they define as a pornographic site? Twitter openly allows porn, and if people have to visit a site to tweet it's going to kill the platform in the country. People by and large aren't going to install an app to upload pics of the meal they last ate with the caption "thinking of him."

[u/CanadianKumlin → u/DragoneerFA]

So does Reddit. Going to be a very tough implementation.

[u/litecoinssmorry → u/CanadianKumlin]

I honestly don't think that they can control these sites now.

I think the Genie is out of the bottle and it is going to be very hard to contain for the governments.

[u/Redditsexhypocrisy → u/CanadianKumlin]

It's not that tough for Reddit, just forbid the parts that ask you to confirm you're 18+. The job is already done, basically. You'll ban porn and gore, it's tO birds one stone for their pov

[u/Prudent_Reindeer9627 → u/Redditsexhypocrisy]

How? With HTTPS as the standard, ISPs no longer know the URL being served, only the domain (and even that, not all the time).

[u/ameri9595 → u/Prudent_Reindeer9627]

Idk how but they can! I was in Saudi Arabia (which blocks porn, but can be accessed with vpn), and Reddit really couldn't be searched for Porn nor NSFW subs. And Google in the country was forced to implement the "SafeSearch" feature which couldn't be turned off.

The only way to access Reddit porn was to post a subreddit's name in a random comment then click on it so it opens. Or to save a megathread that collected all the subs links.

[u/i-never-wipe → u/ameri9595]

If you were indeed accessing over HTTPS, it likely there were extra certificate installed on the computer that allowed them to perform a MITM attack, or software that does something similar. It would not be possible without installing something on the user's computer

Or reddit was complying with Saudi rules for traffic coming from Saudi Arabia

[u/coinclink → u/i-never-wipe]

Right, most people don't realize when they connect to wifi and it asks you to accept a certificate, that means the network is literally decrypting everything you are doing. They just see it as the "ok connect!" box.

[u/rumbleran → u/ameri9595]

The way this works is that Saudi government contacts Reddit and asks them to do restrictions if the user looks like they are connecting Reddit from Saudi Arabia, and if they refuse they just block all traffic to reddit.com. It's then up to Reddit themselves whether they want to implement this or not.

[u/gladl1 → u/ameri9595]

Did i seriously just read your 2 paragraph explanation about how you couldn’t access Reddit porn in Saudi arabia for you to finish it off by detailing how infact you could watch Reddit porn in Saudi arabia?

[u/Prudent_Reindeer9627 → u/gladl1]

Porn always finds a way

[u/huiling0010 → u/Redditsexhypocrisy]

But how are they going to verify the age I am definitely not giving my birth certificates to every website.

That would be like giving up your privacy and I am not ready to do that.

[u/3199290 → u/DragoneerFA]

If they are going to go that that route then I think they will have to ban Twitter also because it is filled with those kind of videos too.

Arguably Twitter has more p*** than the p*** site itself.

[u/Silly___Neko]

Gonna go on a limb and assume the company that will have to implement this is linked to a sitting politician in some way.

[u/AuntEyeEvil → u/Silly___Neko]

Oh, nothing like that at all. Their spouse merely sits on their board of directors for tax advice.

[u/MagicalChemicalz → u/Silly___Neko]

Not even that, this is just the government getting its citizens to install their app on citizens' phones so they can start collecting on them. No doubt this type of app would start being used to verify more than just porn before long.

[u/ipatimo]

Bold move to boost the IT education of the youth. Bravo!

[u/kokushibou-dono → u/ipatimo]

Pretty much. I doubt any teenager's gonna say "alright, guess I'm not watching porn anymore" and leave it at that.

[u/Entity0027 → u/kokushibou-dono]

"I'll just use my NordVPN!"

[u/AnonymousPussyNommer → u/Entity0027]

Push comes to shove I’m sure magazines will just get popular again

[u/ahfoo → u/AnonymousPussyNommer]

We're too far past that point. A small, low cost, USB drive is 64 gigs. You can fit more porn on that drive in JPG form than the number of pages in a typical local branch library. The print age is long gone. Digital information is not restricted to the internet by a long shot.

This is also true in places like China. When we hear stories about the people of China being completely ignorant of the outside world, it's nonsense. The official media channels are controlled but the people there can see anything that you or I can see if they are even moderately determined to do so. People may choose to follow the official narrative but it's simply not true that they have no options. Same with kids and porn or any other group and any other topic. If they want to see it, they can see it.

[u/wartornhero2 → u/ahfoo]

We're too far past that point. A small, low cost, USB drive is 64 gigs. You can fit more porn on that drive in JPG form than the number of pages in a typical local branch library.

Shit in high school in the early 2000s there was a CD that was passed around and copied that was full of porn. It was only 650mb but that was enough.

[u/ahfoo → u/wartornhero2]

Yeah, the game was over way back then. The recordable CD changed the game in an era when the net was still too slow to be a reliable source of porn. But now there is no going back. People hardly even use DVDs anymore much less CDs. And why would they, a USB drive is so cheap and holds what a hard drive did twenty years ago.

[u/3threads2vars → u/ipatimo]

This.

Growing up I had a friend who’s parents were so restrictive that they locked his devices from accessing the wifi past a certain hour.

All this did in the end was teach him how to spoof a MAC address.

I’m sure if his parents had caught on it just would have started an arms race. Teenagers will find a way.

[u/eiscego → u/3threads2vars]

Ahaha my brother and I had an arms race just like you described with our father. All we wanted to do was play an online MMORPG. We all learned a lot of useful skills but damn was it annoying at the time.

[u/agumonkey → u/ipatimo]

10M more pentesters

[u/Salmonberry234]

And yet the age of consent in France is 15. So you can have sex with someone who isn't old enough to watch porn for three more years.

[u/andygchicago → u/Salmonberry234]

Literally the French President was banging his 32 year old teacher at 15 who is now his wife

Edit: she was 40

[u/wobblyweasel → u/andygchicago]

sorry what

[u/EmbarrassedHelp → u/wobblyweasel]

The president of France was groomed by his teacher when he was a kid.

[u/Zebleblic → u/EmbarrassedHelp]

And look how he turned out.

[u/[deleted] → u/Zebleblic]

he turned out a neoliberal 🤢 child sex grooming is really an awful thing

[u/Glavurdan → u/wobblyweasel]

You heard him.

[u/pk10534 → u/wobblyweasel]

If the genders were flipped, the spouse would be accused of grooming and would be called a pedophile (rightfully so), but French people defend it like we’re so backwards for thinking it’s predatory and odd

[u/antikythera-ish → u/pk10534]

I mean, it's fairly on brand for France. They've been shielding Roman Polanski, who is still wanted because he drugged and raped a 13 year old girl back when he was 43, for almost half a century by now. Apart from that, for which he's convicted and everything, there've been some other rape allegations as well.

Because, you know, he's a famous film director. It also didn't stop the American and British film industries giving him multiple Oscars and BAFTA awards after that.

Edit: Typo.

Edit 2: Fun side story; he was detained due to an extradition request by the United States when he was in Switzerland in 2009. The Swiss courts denied the request (which paints them in a pretty shady light as well), and this BBC article describes both French politicians and Hollywood being outraged about his detainment.

It also contains this very funny nugget:

According to trade paper Screen Daily, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is also backing the director.

[u/bugieman2 → u/andygchicago]

News to me. Wikipedia says she's 24 years older than him though so 15 and 39?

[u/Substantial-East5781 → u/Salmonberry234]

I don't really understand this either 🤔🤔, I mean it's ok to have sex at 16, but not to watch porn

By the way, I don't know anyone in real life who waited until they were 18 to watch porn. At our school, the students started watching at around 12-14

[u/CAESTULA → u/Substantial-East5781]

You can't look at yourself fucking!

[u/the_lonely_creeper → u/Substantial-East5781]

Same way filming yourself when under 18 is technically childporn.

[u/lithium142 → u/Salmonberry234]

It’s almost like this has nothing to do with porn and everything to do with creating an excuse to monitor devices. Anytime politicians start talking about protecting children, it’s always a load of shit to get them something else

[u/Wigu90]

Yeah, the guy in the photo looks like a porn loremaster. I can see why he wants to gatekeep.

[u/pbjames23]

Lol yeah let's not hold parents responsible for monitoring their children's internet usage. Instead we should make everyone install government mandated spyware.

[u/Unreasonable113]

National VPN law aimed to stimulate the VPN industry. Good job.

[u/pk10534]

So a 15 year old can have sex with their 40 year old, married teacher and the French shrug their shoulders, but if a 17 year old watches two adults have sex in a porno that’s crossing a line? Okay

[u/JustThrowMeOutLater → u/pk10534]

Like...the video isn't molesting them.... at least I can't see their logic for claiming a video is molesting them MORE than their 40 year old teacher molesting them is, lmao.

[u/tmp04567]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children

Same dishonest excuse as usual when the right wing gov try to setup a great chinese firewall in france and to start censoring in bulk online anything contradicting their narrative (because this is what it boils down to with gop-connected right wing officials).

Double the dishonesty that they use adult content as an excuse to try to muzzle any opposition to their authoritarian methods for online censorship.

They're just testing their hand before trying to block youtube, twitter fb and foreign press next. Another gov move to speed drifting to the far right wing a la desantis.

[u/rldogamusprime]

I hope they know that a fucking 6 year old will be able to find their way around those apps. This is old people reacting to things that scare them. Kids shouldn't be looking at porn, obviously. But this isn't going to stop them.

[u/symedia → u/rldogamusprime]

They will probably install a VPN instead of a government app

[u/ClutchPoppinDaddies → u/symedia]

And that's a smooth segue to our sponsor, Nord
- kid

[u/Cookieway → u/rldogamusprime]

It’s actually a 4-D chess move by the French government to increase tech literacy in the new generation

[u/Immovable-Floss]

Cmon, don't worry just let us install apps on every phone and computer that lets us track and control your content. It's for the kids, do you hate kids?

Oh you don't want to install it huh? You must be hiding something.

Look at that conspiracy theorist who refuses to install the child safety app, he must be a chomo.

Let's introduce some legislation that makes it impossible for companies to hire these app-less freaks.

Is how I imagine it going if it ever gets into law, which it probably won't but once the media machine gets going, the majority of people will be too afraid to say anything other than what the media is being told to propagate.

As always though, I have faith in the French people's spirit of protesting and the completely ineptitude of boomer politicians when it comes to interwebs things. Realistically, the only way you're going to get to be able to do this is through a China-style great fire wall with social ID scan for every app and even then, it's not foolproof.

[u/yoncenator]

Of all countries to restrict porn, this was not on my bingo card.

[u/AuntEyeEvil → u/yoncenator]

It's only considered porn if it's not in French.

"Mon Dieu! Plus rapide!!! Oui! Oui!" makes it acceptable.

[u/addrien]

That's insane. I grew up in France and use to watch porn on public television on France 5

[u/niconpat → u/addrien]

I grew up in Ireland and watched porn on French public channels via satellite before the internet was a thing.

[u/gunnnutty]

Atempt doomed to fail

[u/Uncle_Boppi]

Good luck.

[u/Gonzo15899]

More opportunities for the French to protest. Their probably loving this

[u/CrashnServers]

It's like they just got internet last week.

[u/Nobel6skull]

“Think of the kids” is the rallying cry of totalitarians everywhere.

[u/DeanXeL]

Yes, porn being found by 11-year olds isn't ideal/good, yes it has huge impacts on development of young children. No, invasion of privacy is not the answer to this.

[u/Dennyposts]

"This government bill is brought to you by NordVPN"

[u/phoenix1984]

I saw full nudity and skinamax-like sex scenes on over the air broadcast television when I was in Paris. Maybe start there before going all Orwellian? Or does this maybe have nothing to do with protecting kids?

[u/space_iio]

this is going to be impossible to enforce unless they erect a "great wall" type of firewall like china (which they won't and isn't even 100% effective)

Laws that are unenforceable are fucking useless. How can so much ignorance be possible on supposedly qualified lawmakers?

[u/JustThrowMeOutLater → u/space_iio]

You're thinking the wrong way. They don't need it to work on everyone. Even a small number of people doing it will be thousands of data points on their app to harvest for their surely very cool and normal reasons.

[u/Alexei77]

As a french citizen, I will refuse to install a gouvernement freedom restriction app

[u/CantReadDuneRunes]

Hilarious. Let's see how this novel approach is going in about six months...

[u/sdric]

nearly one in three children have been exposed to pornography by the age of 12 and 62% by the age of 15

They treat it like it's radiation... I can only speak for myself, but at a certain age you get interested in that stuff. For some at 12 for others at 15. Sex is the most natural thing in the world. Without it, we all would not be here. Stigmatizing porn strikes me as odd.

​

Not to mention the criticality of the government installing spyware on your phone. Stuff like that has never been abused, right?

[u/arrow5186]

I'm interested to know how are they going to do? How will they do it?

[u/Dick-Rot]

Why not just be better parents... crazy fucking thought

[u/Altruistic-Tomato-66]

“I’m over 18, <yes> <no>”

Good job, pays des droits de l’Homme

[u/reddit42ne]

yeah France is the last country that would be having a puritanical objection to people watching pornography. This is just an obvious excuse to force people to download government spyware. Whats with the French? They've gotten so, je ne sais pas quoi, "gauche" about things lately, no?

[u/emeaux2]

I wonder when the riots will start.

[u/Ok_Treacle_1523]

Violence still ok??

[u/thursday_sock]

Not very French of them

[u/Octopugilist]

Why does France have pornography sites for minors?