Porn censorship is going to destroy the internet

Summary

Accessing porn — and the entire internet — has radically changed.In June, the Supreme Court declared Texas's age-verification law constitutional. The following month, the UK's own age-verification law went into effect. Internet users have only begun to face the effects. Age verification laws broadly refer to legislation that requires proof of age to enter a website that hosts explicit content. In the United States, these state laws vary in language and requirements. In the UK, specific types of age assurance are listed, such as a facial scan or a credit card. While these laws are outwardly about preventing minors from accessing porn sites, the reality is that they're being applied to mainstream social media sites and independent websites, and require adults to submit their personal information in order to access swaths of the internet. And this is only the beginning. Mashable spoke with experts who expressed "doom and gloom" about the future of our online lives.What is age verification doing to the internet?The UK's Online Safety Act doesn't just age-gate porn; it blocks material deemed "harmful" to minors. Days after the law went into effect, reports of non-explicit content on social media getting blocked in the region started to crop up. Subreddits from r/IsraelCrimes to r/stopsmoking are now walled in the UK. Video games, Spotify, and dating apps have instituted or will institute age checks. "The rollout of the Online Safety Act has shown just how disastrous this type of regulation can be," said Mike Stabile, director of public policy at adult industry trade organization, the Free Speech Coalition. Not only is age verification unpopular in the UK, but it's also ineffective. VPN downloads have soared, so people can pretend to be in a different location. Another creative workaround is using a selfie of a video game character to circumvent the check.Over in the U.S., a preliminary study out of NYU also suggested that age verification doesn't work for these reasons. ...