The European Commission preliminarily found Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) for failing to protect minors from being exposed to pornographic content on their services.

  • smiletolerantly@awful.systems
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    3 months ago

    It’s mostly just that I don’t want the government to know precisely which websites I visit. Nor do I want the the porn sites to know exactly who I am.

    I understand, I want that too. It’s easily possible though (just one example for a scheme):

    • you visit porn site
    • porn site sends your browser a random nonce
    • you/browser tell government service: sign this if I’m >18
    • government signs the nonce + a timstamp to prove freshness
    • your browser forwards the result to the porn site
    • porn site can verify signature per standard public certificate chains
    • now porn site has proof that you are >18, but knows nothing else about you; and government only knows that you wanted proof that you are an adult, but not for what site or purpose you wanted to prove that

    Alternatively, if we go the “device has an age bracket field browsers access” route, it’s even simpler, and just as if not more privacy preserving.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      That already tells the government that I’m accessing porn because why else would I need to confirm I’m an adult online? And why would they implement it in a somewhat private manner if it could be implemented in a privacy-infringing manner?

      • smiletolerantly@awful.systems
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        3 months ago

        And why would they implement it in a somewhat private manner if it could be implemented in a privacy-infringing manner?

        I honestly don’t think most democratic governments have an interest in making this privacy-infringing. Lobbyists/companies on the other hand… But all the more reason to write legislation that ensures age verification must be handled like this.

        That already tells the government that I’m accessing porn because why else would I need to confirm I’m an adult online?

        Cinema rickets for FSK18 movie? Ordering alcohol? Gambling? Renting a car?

        Basically anything you’re only allowed to do as an adult.

        But that’s kind of why I mentioned, it’s just one rough draft for such a protocol.