Indiana: Another Age Verification Bill Criminalizing Legal Pornography
from the what-the-hell-is-happening-in-the-midwest dept
Another state lawmaker has introduced an age verification bill looking to block minors’ access to porn websites.
This time, Indiana state Sen. Mike Bohacek of the community of Michiana Shores has introduced a preliminary draft that proposes copycat age verification policies similar to other states, including Louisiana, Texas, Utah, and others.
The Indiana bill would establish a criminal penalty for websites that “knowingly or intentionally” produce adult content online and don’t verify users’ ages from Indiana-based IP addresses. It also establishes a right to civil action.
According to the draft text of the bill, transnational pornography websites and their parent firms – especially adult companies based in Canada and Cyprus – would be subject to a misdemeanor if they do not meet the age verification requirements laid out by the bill.
However, the bill allows for a violator of the crime to be charged with a felony if the violators have a criminal history or if the individual is found liable for violating the civil aspects of the bill that allow for civil actions.
This is the bill’s current language (currently referred to as Preliminary Draft 3021):
An adult-oriented website operator who knowingly or intentionally publishes an adult-oriented website without using a reasonable age verification method to prevent a minor from accessing the adult-oriented website commits allowing a child to access Internet pornography, a Class A misdemeanor.
However, the offense is a level 6 felony if the adult-oriented website operator has: (1) a prior unrelated conviction under this section; or (2) been found liable in a prior unrelated civil action brought under section 9 or 10 of this [bill].
Bohacek told the local NBC affiliate in Indianapolis South Bend that his proposal is not intended to limit the rights of adults who choose to view consensual pornography protected by the First Amendment.
“These verification methods aren’t restricting the rights of legal adults, just tightening the law to ensure kids don’t access harmful material,” Bohacek explained to the outlet. He further pushed the anti-porn sentiment that age verification is constitutional and “reasonable.” Case law shows a different reality.
In my last post for Techdirt, we meet Ohio state Rep. Steve Demetriou, who has introduced an age verification proposal that makes it a felony for adult website owners who fail to meet the bill’s standards if it becomes statute. Demetriou’s proposal also charges a crime for those who circumvent the age-gate requirements through a VPN or proxy. While the Ohio bill is much more extreme, Bohacek’s proposal is clearly unconstitutional. U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union that it violates the First Amendment of adult users for the government to require age verification or a similar measure that segregates age-restricted content across the internet.
A federal judge in Austin also found that a similar bill adopted by the Texas state legislature violated the First Amendment and the privacy rights of adult site users.
I don’t know what is happening in the Midwest, but these age verification bills are getting weird.
Michael McGrady covers the legal and tech side of the online porn business, among other things. He is the politics and legal contributing editor for AVN.com.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, adult content, age verification, indiana, mike bohacek, porn sites
Comments on “Indiana: Another Age Verification Bill Criminalizing Legal Pornography”
Just ensuring that we know who is accessing anything we classify as pornography today, and harmful to children tomorrow. Soon after that we will ensure that we have everybodies full web browsing history.
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Because, hey, who doesn’t like the opportunity to blackmail their competitors, or wave a hot-button non-issue against their political opponents?
Unenforceable on websites outside the United States
Also, someone in Indiana could use VPN or Tor to bypass IP blocking
Circumventing geoblocking does not break the law.
There is no law doing n the books at the federal level or any 50 states that makes it a crime to bypass geographic restrictions, so this law will not work.
Also the VPN server I use in Belarus is not subhect to any American laws so they can never be made to bow down to American laws.
They are only subject to the laws of Belarus so so someone in Indiana could use that and state of Indiana could never be able to prosecute the VPN provider there as USA laws do not apply in Belarus
I use that VPN in Belarus combined with Tor when I post there because I have made posts here that likely attracted the attention of the feds.
The way I do it I cannot be traced
Re: You May Want to Re-Read the Article
Circumventing geoblocking might not currently break the law, but his proposal is planning to change that.
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If the VPN is in Belarus like the one I use you will never be traced. A VPN im Belarus is not subject to American laws. combine that with Tor and you will never be traced
I do that when I.post here because I have made posts the have likely attracted the attention of the feds and other LEOs.
Using tor combined with vpn makes me wonder untraceable
Also you could imagine se any one of a number of disk wiping tools to wipe evidence from your hard disk
No evidence means mo CASE
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What makes you think a VPN is a repressive country will do anything but track what you do online?
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However,bekarus is not likely to cooperate with us aujthorities right now
And I also can connect to Tor after that, adding to the untraceability
It is a matter of US my a VPN in a country not likely to cooperate with US authorities right now
Right now the government there is not friendly towards the United States
I also use a VPN to n Russia and putin is not going to give American authoritues the time of day right now
North Korea is another vpn option if your vpn provider has a server there.
Kim jong un.wullnever cooperate with the United States
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The only way there can be no evidence legally is if your VPN of choice doesn’t collect that sort of info. Which means do your research and get a VPN that doesn’t collect that info in the first place.
Proton has shown that VPNs, and by extension, all companies offering digital services, regardless of how privacy-focused they are, have to comply with the law of the land.
Also, advising us to break the law tends to end up… bad for the one breaking the law.
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funny cuase your being treated like one anyways so what’s the difference
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And it still doesn’t give YOU the permission to break the law, unless you’re as rich as Elon.
What part of “don’t hand your enemy ammo” do you not get?
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so you support fascism shill
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For the interests of anyone who is still reading this inane asshole arguing with me…
I already live in an authcap shithole where the government already sees the citizens as lower than dirt and needs EVERYTHING decided for them at birth, or at least giving them the illusion of choice as long as they be good little incumbent-supporting citizens.
I am NOT a fucking brownshirt. I am so far removed from the definition that I would be more than willing to suggest unpalatable solutions to certain problems once the legal options are denied to everyone.
I simply do not believe that one should not actively antagonize the powers that be unless there’s no other option left.
And some of those legal options left to the rest of us? Getting a good VPN/email provider that doesn’t keep logs of ANY sort. Privacy hardening your browser where possible.
Committing crime is usually not anyone’s go-to Option unless you are actively involved in organized crimem and even then, even crimelords would prefer to not poke the bear if possible.
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the issue is the people that didn’t commit a crime are gonna be treated as criminals eventually cuase the leopards will eat your face even if you do as they tell you
'You first'
Bohacek told the local NBC affiliate in Indianapolis that his proposal is not intended to limit the rights of adults who choose to view consensual pornography protected by the First Amendment.
Sure, how could mandatory ID checks that strip away anonymity of visitors/users, and in this case applies to content that could be livelihood ruining if exposed creating a very real chilling effect possibly violate the first amendment?
If that’s how he wants to play however I propose a ‘Transparency in government’ bill to mandate that all internet use by politicians be tracked and stripped of any anonymity, with what they are looking at stored in a super-duper secure online system that will totally not be hacker/blackmail bait the second it’s created. Since I’m sure he doesn’t have anything to hide regarding his online presence and behavior and he’s a big fan of removing anonymity from everyone else I expect nothing less than complete and utter support for such a bill.
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Awww, is the sex-trafficking advocate upset?
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Just fucking stop already. None of it is funny or thought-provoking or astute.
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Why don’t you just tell us if you’re upset, then? No need to refer to yourself in the third person.
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No one who writes for Techdirt has ever advocated for sex trafficking.
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On the other hand I would not put it past one or more of the trolls that infest the site as it would hardly be the most heinous thing they’ve supported…
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Still not getting laid, eh Matt? The scornful replies in this comments section are as close as you will ever come to a woman’s touch.
The Midwest
I have been to the Midwest, and I have always thought it was weird, but, yeah, this repetitive insistence on unconstitutional, unworkable, and privacy-violating age verification laws is getting weirder. Maybe it is the Midwest lawmaker’s inner fascists coming out of the closet.
Re: All upsides, no downsodes, far too easy to explain sadly
I suspect that it’s a combination of ‘porn’ being one of the current fearmongering targets with the lowest possibility of backlash since anyone that objects can be tarred as a perverted lunatic who certainly couldn’t have any valid objections and the politicians engaging in said fearmongering realizing that there is no penalty for pushing/passing blatantly unconstitutional bills so long as a majority of voters likewise loathe the first amendment but there are plenty of upsides to be seen doing so thanks to those voters.
It’s not hard to see what’s going on with the conservatives. They see that the progressives are pushing their values into many things in america so the GOPterrorists are returning to their force-hypocritical-jesus-law-on-everyone tactics from the 90s/2000s. The current house speaker basically isn’t pretending to want to live and let live.
From the same party that thinks priests should be able to protect pedophiles.
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As far as making foreign websites criminally liable, arrest warrants are all on computers
They can avoid extradition by breaking into law enforcement computer networks are erasing the warrants for their arrest
With the money these site owners have they could hire hackers to erase the warrants and then breaking into and trashing the prosecutors offive computer network and puttung out of commission
If they cannot prepare their case they can’t go to trial, if their computer network has been broken into and taken down and also run them up a big repair bill.fiebthwm.costing them big money to get their network fixed
And their is nothing in the bill regarding the end user
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Remember kids, don’t do drugs or you might end up like this guy, advocating for people to commit multiple federal felonies to erase one state charge (on a law that won’t be constitutional anyways).
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And my observation here is that if you have the skills to break into computers belonging to law enforcement it would be far easier to circumvent age-verifications and hide your tracks.
This dude shows up regularly proposing breaking into computers to erase any records of a crime which makes me believe he’s a fan of the 90’s movies Sneakers and Hackers, and possibly the famous NCIS episode where two persons simultaneously use one keyboard to hack “better” – because movie hacker-tropes work in real life…
Zoom and Enhance!
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To be fair, if you can get access to police computers, chances are you either are the police chief, FBI or someone so well-connected you probably can get away with it.
Oh, and for the FBI agent who’s PROBABLY watching us because of a few smart individuals advocating for CSAM, hi!
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A rich person could go on the dark web and hire hackers to do the job with payment all done with cryptocurrency. Crypto, if dine right, cannot be traced to you
Also, after you have done the deed, you just throw the computer in the river, bay or whatever to deep sux the evidence.
No evidence = no CASE
These politicians want to rule over your life.
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How are they going to enforce the anti circumvention law of the VPN dies not have any logging and/or is in a country like Belarus?
Tor also makes you untraceabl
And contary to what some might think, by passing geoblocking does not break any federal laws
Bypassing geofencing dies not violate the dmca becuse it is not because done for financial gain,meaning making money
It does violate the cfaa because you are not using a sole passwoor
A felony cfaa requires you use an illegally obtained password and bypassing geoblocking does not rise to that
When I take road trips to Mexico I use a VPN so I can still listen to my iHeart and YouTube music playlists while I am driving down there
I do not break any laws using a VPN to access I heart or YouTube music playlists when I am in Mexico either in Mexico or the United States
The only way to determine if you, a citizen of Indiana, are viewing porn, directly or via a VPN, is to subpoena your ISP’s records. And for that, they’ll need a court’s permission, as this is on the same level as a warrant, i.e. looking for information. And for that, they’ll need probable cause. So don’t say anything to your friends or neighbors, as they may turn on you.
Now for the fun part: Just wait until those legislators get a load of DoH (DNS over HTTPS). Even ISPs are not going to be able to divulge anything, no matter how much a court might order them to do so.
Rogaine futures, that’s where the smart money is going, as head-in-ass legislators, prosecutors, other assorted assholes who want to run your life, all tear their hair out when they learn the can’t make ISPs or anyone else not use DoH.
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If the VPN dies not keep logs, good luck tracing anything
And if the VPN is in Belarus, like the one I use, they are not subject to.any subpoena by any U.S. cour
Any site not in the U.S. does not have to comply with American laws
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What if the VPN dies not keep any logs?
If the VPN is not logging like nearly all of them are, there is no way to trace you
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Warrant? Probable cause?
HAHAHAHA. Have you learned nothing?
Probable cause: You live in Indiana and access the internet.
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Wat h them also tear their hair out when sales of disk wiping tools go up to securely etase all the evidence out of their hard disks and instigators cannot recover any usable evidence
These pirate sites in BRICS countries I have mentioned that carry every cable channel known to man also have a lot of porn channels as well.
These services, and there are quite a few now, in India, china, and Russia are not subject to prosecution in the United States.
That is why folks like the MPA are having a fit with these outfits.
If they cannot enforce us copyright laws in those countries how is Indiana going to enforce age-gatw in those countries.
You can premier league soccer on them and the premier League has no way to stop
In short, the dozens of sites like that that shown up in countries like China, India, Russia, and Iran are beyond the rescue of any kind of enforcement
I do expect these pirate sites to get a lot more business with the porn channels that are included
If you do go that route, be aware that the sites may have a lot of buffering issues at certain days and times
During football season, Sunday, Monday, and Thursday nights will see heave loads with people watching football.
Because Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night games are on cable, cord cutters, lioe myself, use these services, to watch the games.
With some upcoming college bowl gamess cable only the sites will slow down on New Year’s Day during the Rose Bowl, becuuse the ESPN has the rights and the load on their severs will be high.
Also, March Madness will see their severs get a workout since a lot of these games are on expensive cable packages like college GameDay.
I don’t see how they will enforce age verification in these countrie when folks like the MPA, ACE, and others cannot copyright law there
Cue PornHub blocking Indiana in 3…2…1…
Re: PornHub block
I would expect that people who want to look at PornHub, etc. in indiana will get a VPN, as others have suggested.
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Particularly like the one in Belarus I use. A VPN in Belarus is not subject to American laws and the folks there who run that vpn are not subject to prosecurtuon in the the United States
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Remember that your connection to a VPN is enctyoted so neither law enforcement or your ISP can see what you are doing
And any vpn outside of the United States is not subject to us laws
Contraet to some think foreign websites are not subject to American laws
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And remember folks, when there’s a will, there’s a way, especially when you can bargain, ie, threaten or blackmail, with the authorities.
Just ask Protonmail and Kim Dotcom.
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Another way is to use your phone to view porn and then have it dialed up to insane cop.proif mode where they cannot get at the contents
In addition to booby trap mode I have mentioned there is a mode on some Samsung phones where when you turn the phone on it will not even boot without the right password
If this mode is set and the phone is turned off when a cop seizes it do the cops no good of they cannot even boot the OS
The phone would relegated to am expensive paperweight on some cop’s as they be able to extract anything from it
There is no law in any of the 50 states that makes it a crime to lock the police out of your phone like that
I do all that when I go to Canada’s wonderland since I have go through Michigan and hearing out phones being seized by cops there. They can take my phone but they will never get anything useful out of it
From the west coast there is no way to get to Toronto without going through Michigan
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Well, at least you have the “insane” part down.
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You just refuse to give them yourpassword, then the phone me just becomws an expensive paperweight on a cops desk
There no law law on the books that makes it a crime to refuse to give them your password to your phones password
And on a PC you can use a program that can wipe your yard disk where nothing can be recovered. There are ev n USB sticks you can.boot from that can wipe a harddisk.completely
Then you just repartition,reformat and reinstall your os and all.your programs
Anything that was there before willl never be recovered. Once the disk wipe is done what was there before is GONE.
No.evidence = no CASE
And there is no law that makes doing that a crime in Australia or America
I know this because I had my Australia based online radio station it was company policy to wipe all stations owned devices and reinstall before travelling internationally with any station equipment, especially to.rhe USA, Britain, Canada, or new Zealand, or returning to Australia.
Our policy did not break any laws in Australia, Canada, new Zealand, Britain, or the United States
There are no laws on the books in.any of those countries that made our policy of wiping devices before and international travel a crimimal offence
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More untruthful words have never been spoken. Most states make it a crime to interfere with a law enforcement officer’s duties, to include routine investigations. In most cases, it’s called “withholding evidence without plausibility”. They enforce that one pretty hard. Not to mention, there’s always the good old contempt of court charge. That’s rooted in both legislative and case law, look it up.
You might want to consult with several convicted murderers where no body was ever found. Here’s a link to a “short” list, just in the US alone (The page actually contains a large number of countries.):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_murder_convictions_without_a_body#United_States
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However, in the case of anything computer related, you can wipe the hard disk
If your phone is seized just get timyiut Google account asap, and the send the command to erase and wipe your phone
Then you use a disk wiper utility to securely wipe your hard disk to anilate evidence.
If they cannot recovet any evidence they have no.proof.
Like I said, when I use to run my online radio station in Australia it was company policy to completely wipe company owned devices before travelling internationally with them
When.we used to broadcast the September to December figure skating circuit we broke no laws wiping our devices and reinstalling before passing through customs in any of the countries we went to
We broke no laws in Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, China, Canada, Japan, Mexico, China, the USA or upon returning to Australia.
There no law in any of those countries that makes it a crime to wipe your devices and reinstall before going through customs.
I’ve long held that parents are the least qualified people to be raising kids. I guess I’ll have to amend that now that legislators are more and more passing laws which prove that they are far worse than parents at deciding what’s right for kids.