Russians Now Need a Passport To Watch Pornhub (vice.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VICE News: Pornhub, the world's biggest porn site, now requires users in Russia to log in using social media accounts linked to their passports and cell phones. Monday's change is the latest chapter of an ongoing feud between Pornhub and the Russian government. The site was blocked in Russia last September for allegedly spreading information detrimental to the development of children, then reinstated in April after instituting a requirement that users specify their age. At the time, Pornhub asked the Russian state media regulation agency whether officials there would lift the ban if they were given free Pornhub Premium accounts. Pornhub announced the change on its own Vkontakte page page by saying "now you can simply log in through your favorite social network" instead of filling in your date of birth. But the government policy that Pornhub says prompted the change presumably wasn't aimed at making it easier for Russians to watch porn. Instead, it may be a means of surveillance; to open a Vkontakte account, users need to enter their cell phone numbers. And to legally purchase a SIM card in Russia, you need to disclose your passport information. "While this exact method is not a condition [from the Russian government], we found this is the best solution for our users to comply with Russian access laws," Pornhub Vice President Corey Price said. "Also to be clear, Pornhub does not log or store any of your personal information, this is just a check to see if users are over 18. On [Vkontakte's] end, all they will see is see the request from that user, they will not know what that user browsed on Pornhub."

Comments

Re:Probably not

[Kjella]

Oh please, we have playboys and prostitutes that have had sex with hundreds if not thousands of sex partners so pregnancies and STDs is pretty much solved except for drunken unprotected sex and religious hang-ups that prevent abortion. Pretty much the only unsolved problem is supply/demand, which is what leads to commercialized/weaponized sex. If both sides felt they could get their sex needs solved with toys and the dating scene became about finding love/relationships and not about scoring/hoarding access to sex organs we'd see the negativity go away. Until then there'll still be all sorts of problems as men want sex and choose to get it in foul ways as well as women using sex as a tool for power/money. And then there's some very fucked up honor systems with different rules for men and women, but that's a much bigger social/civil rights issue.