this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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politics

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It's interesting how I'm not hearing this anywhere in the news at all. I've had one user tell me that their instance is actually blocking a post of this article in another instance.

top 32 comments
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[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 13 hours ago

So they want people watching porn to be of certain age, but watching child porn is fine? Release the unedited Epstein files!

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

This is some bullshit and I suspect as a person who grew up in ohio that it's generally unpopular. Ohio's population was always far more moderate than this

[–] willeypete23@reddthat.com 28 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

You know what nuts? I live in one these states. Any time I want to view that kinda content I have to use a VPN. The fastest censorship free VPN? Cuba.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 10 points 18 hours ago

The bay of pigs all over again, but sexier.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 14 points 22 hours ago

Great time to invest in VPN stocks

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 37 points 1 day ago

Must be 18+ to watch porn

Must be 18- to watch porn while sitting on the lap of one of these legislators

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 95 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Quexotic@sh.itjust.works 46 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

It may be small government but that's how they're winning.

https://kindbridge.com/online-pornography-age-verification-laws-by-state-map/

States with Active Age Verification Laws (25 Total)

  • Alabama - HB 164
  • Arizona - HB 2112 (effective May 2025)
  • Arkansas - SB 66 (effective July 2023)
  • Florida - HB 3 (effective January 2025)
  • Georgia - SB 351 (effective July 1, 2025)
  • Idaho - H 498 (effective July 2024)
  • Indiana - SB 17/Act 17 (effective August 2024)
  • Kansas - SB 394 (effective July 2024)
  • Kentucky - Law passed
  • Louisiana - HB 142 & HB 77 (first state, effective January 1, 2023)
  • Mississippi - SB 2346
  • Missouri - 15 CSR 60-18 (effective November 30, 2025)
  • Montana - SB 544 (effective January 2024)
  • Nebraska - LB 1092 (effective July 2024)
  • North Carolina - HB 8
  • North Dakota - HB 1561 (effective August 1, 2025)
  • Ohio - HB 96 (effective September 30, 2025)
  • Oklahoma - SB 1959 (effective November 2024)
  • South Carolina - Law effective January 2025
  • South Dakota - Law effective July 1, 2025
  • Tennessee - Law effective January 2025
  • Texas - HB 1181 & HB 18 (upheld by Supreme Court June 2025)
  • Utah - SB 287
  • Virginia - SB 1515
  • Wyoming - Law effective July 1, 2025

States WITHOUT Age Verification Laws (25 Total)

  • Alaska
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Hawaii
  • Illinois
  • Iowa
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 14 points 19 hours ago

Now do a venn diagram comparing that with states allowing child marriage.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 45 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s meant to be ironic. Government so small it fits in your pants.

State governments can still be big and intrusive. This idea that small government means states can do whatever they want to abuse their citizens is a right-wing delusion.

[–] Quexotic 9 points 1 day ago

Lol. I forgot about that saying and missed the irony. Thanks for the laugh, internet friend!

[–] dissentiate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Step 1: Become elected GOP cretin

Step 2: Repeatedly screech about a moral panic

Step 3: Legislate some shit law that is full of things that benefits whoever bribed you to get it to the floor

Step 4: Go back to diddling kids until you're outed publicly

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] dissentiate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As long as Step 4 doesn't happen, then yes. Repeatedly.

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 3 points 22 hours ago (2 children)
[–] oppy1984@lemdro.id 3 points 18 hours ago

That would be step #4

[–] not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

I mean you can be president and then profit.

[–] Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 81 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Porn is an easy target. Gets the religious psychos on board with generalized internet censorship.

They're building the Great Firewall of the US. Brick by brick.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 38 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

It isn't just religious nutjobs.

"Porn addiction" is right up there with "seed oils will give you super diabetic cancer" in terms of the kind of stupidity that pervades both the left and the right. There is mass widespread vilification of masturbation and sexual health. Sometimes it is based on "God wants you to wear a hat and not masturbate". Sometimes it is based on the idea that pornography is inherently demeaning to women (there is definitely some fucked up shit out there, but the 00s/10s saw the rise of "chick porn" and onlyfans et al have continued along with the focus that porn can be good for more than just the dudes who want to see some hairy taint pounding away at an inflamed vag because ludes are cheaper than lube).

And basically no influencers are going to stand up for it. Partially because porn is inherently competition for them (time you spend rubbing one out is time that could otherwise be spent falling asleep to ishowspeed reruns). And partially because they don't want to be vilified as "gooners" for... supporting sexual health.

And yeah. Once the framework is in place it becomes REAL easy to extend it towards the real targets: LGBTQ+ content.


As an aside, a couple months back I saw a REALLY wild thread on reddit about how men should sit down to pee and make sure to blot any urine with toilet paper. At first I thought it was just a bit but then I saw people lose their god damned minds at some (presumably) guy who explained that if you just give it a quick shake after you finish you are looking at a few drops, at worst, in your underpants and that is nothing. Definitely give it a rinse if you are about to engage in sexual activity but you aren't going to "reek of piss" all day.

They went insane and insisted it is closer to an ounce. This led me down a rabbit hole of checking people's profiles (bursts of insomnia is fun) to see this is a regular argument and more or less coming to the conclusion that, at least for a good many of these people, it is not just a complete lack of hygiene. Which got me googling (actually asking chatgpt and then verifying once I knew what terms to search for) and you know what is associated with (medical term) leaky dick syndrome?

That's right. Weak (again, medical term) schlong muscles. And you know the best way to exercise that? That's right! Kegels and ejaculation!

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago

Yeah it's really easy for regressives to target sexual topics. Firstly, the private nature of such topics makes it difficult to defend both due to internal cultural shame and due to fear that when you speak up you will be discredited as someone who lacks that shame, a pervert.

Then there's the fact that libertine lifestyles leave extra opportunities to be hurt. The price of freedom is the opportunity to make bad choices, the price of trust is that others have the opportunity to hurt you and some will.

There is an intense revulsion to sexual harm and an added injury when it's experienced. In sex work including porn you add the opportunity for the ways in which labor is exploited and laborers are abused into sexual contexts and even the most class unconscious American instinctively feels that and it's easy to see it as inherently extremely evil and harmful.

But even outside of sex work, sexually libertine lifestyles offer a lot of opportunities to be hurt. I say this from experience as someone who has been hurt in some of these ways on multiple occasions and has continued living that way.

It's also very easy to sanitize the past. Every generation thinks they invented sex, except for the ones that grew up in a society where sexual freedom was normal, and they often don't understand why we fought so hard for it. They didn't watch as some of the adults around them growing up were slowly stifled by a life and a marriage that made them miserable. They demand a retvrn to a fictional world where the neighbors down the street not only weren't swinging but didn't want to and where there weren't porno mag stashes in the woods that the kids snuck readings of just as much as the dad.

Idk maybe I'm just the slutty daughter of a straight woman who actually read playboy for the articles (and I gotta say as a lesbian, at its peak the porn wasn't half as good as the writing). There is value in the sexual and there is value in the unabashed adultness and rawness that can thrive alongside it. To sincerely speak to those who live differently from you but have been vulnerable in the way of admitting their more adult life, that is a rare treat for one to experience outside adolescence. I want a world in which the sex repulsed asexual, the monogamous couple, and the hobag are all free to live according to their desires, and banning porn is a clear attack on that world

[–] shifty@leminal.space 16 points 1 day ago

Yes Fap November, let's goooo

[–] possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

you can also just give the gooch a lil squeeze after peeing to push out the remainder left in the pipes.

[–] Wiz@midwest.social 3 points 18 hours ago

Right at the base of the scrotum is a magic button, that when you push it, empties the rest of the bladder. It's just science. You can't explain it!

[–] Quexotic@sh.itjust.works 41 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The best part is, Blue sky is complying in advance and this is preventing Free speech. https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/29/bluesky-rolls-out-age-verification-for-users-in-ohio/

[–] Gerudo@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago

So which Republicans own stock in VPNs?

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Why do Ohioans accept this?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

A level of gerrymandering that more or less makes you give up. Like, multiple constitutional amendments to stop gerrymandering but the legislature learned they could just run out the clock. This resulted in brain drain as progressive, liberal, and educated people left while conservatives flocked to a state with a purple economy and deepening red laws.

[–] Quexotic@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

Do you want the real answer or a pithy quip that's suitable for a retweet?

The zone has been so entirely flooded that I can't find Ohioans that know about this.

Also, Ohio's age verification law was tucked into House Bill 96, the state's two-year operating budget bill that was over 3,000 pages long (specifically 3,156 pages). The provision appears in Section 1349.10 of the budget bill, which was signed by Governor DeWine on June 30, 2025.

Unlike other states that passed age verification as standalone legislation, Ohio specifically "nestled" the age verification requirements into the state's operating budget rather than making it a bill in its own right.

So it's not a matter of it being "accepted". Those shitheels just slid it in under the radar.

Also, like that other person said, there are legitimately education challenges in Ohio.

In the late 90s, the way Ohio funds schools was found to be unconstitutional, that is according to the state constitution not the US Constitution, and that has yet to be fully rectified but that's a whole other fucking can of worms.

[–] arin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Lack of education

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Quexotic@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

I 100% agree with you. Fuck those fucking fuckers.