porn | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Tue, 21 Mar 2017 11:00:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png porn | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 ‘Porn for Geeks’ producer on why the Digital Economy Bill will kill British business https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/porn-for-geeks-producer-on-why-the-digital-economy-bill-will-kill-british-business/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/porn-for-geeks-producer-on-why-the-digital-economy-bill-will-kill-british-business/#respond Tue, 21 Mar 2017 10:48:11 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=324956 British porn producer Harriet Sugarcookie is no stranger to overreaching and economically damaging laws. Two years ago she moved her flourishing business overseas to avoid the talons of moral grandstanding on the part of UK legislation and has been very successful since. Now though, while she sees the Digital Economy Bill as something far more …

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British porn producer Harriet Sugarcookie is no stranger to overreaching and economically damaging laws. Two years ago she moved her flourishing business overseas to avoid the talons of moral grandstanding on the part of UK legislation and has been very successful since. Now though, while she sees the Digital Economy Bill as something far more dangerous to British business, she's just as concerned, but far less likely to be affected.

The Digital Economy Bill (DEB) is a currently under-debate piece of legislation that although initially designed to guarantee a minimum level of internet bandwidth for consumers, has been piggybacked by amendments that also see it trying its hand at moral policing and censorship.

The DEB now looks set to force ‘effective' age gates on any site that profits from pornography and if they fail to comply, the British Board of Film Classification is going to have the power to force ISPs to block them. It can even initiate blocks against sites which host what it decides is ‘non-conventional' porn too.

Age gating is something that no site has ever been able to effectively do, which is what has so many people concerned. Harriet Sugarcookie is too, but doesn't have to be. While her industry friends back in Blightey will certainly be affected, The “Porn for Geeks” producer is, funnily enough, likely to benefit from the bill, should it be signed into law.

“My business partner has looked into the business side of this more than I have and he feels it could be a brilliant business opportunity, assuming all sites are treated the same,” she said to KitGuru. “Only larger sites like ours will be able to afford to comply. Smaller sites may not have the technical skill or they may not have the money.”

“Government regulation generally makes markets less competitive so why would porn be any different?”

Source: Harriet Sugarcookie/Twitter

Don't confuse the facetious tone with apathy though. Harriet is staunchly against this sort of legislation and believes it's important to say something about it:

“I feel a responsibility to my UK members and readers and my friends in the UK industry to do what I can to speak out against it,” she said.

But the reason Harriet won't be as affected by this law as others, isn't just because her site and service are bigger than most, but because she doesn't work or live here anymore. Two years ago, she felt threatened enough by British legislative changes, to uproot her entire life and move from the UK.

In 2014, the British government introduced the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014, which effectively banned a number of pornographic practices from being filmed in the UK. They include face-sitting, female ejaculation and fisting among others, most of which seemed to relate to female enjoyment and empowerment during sex. They were considered unconventional, or potentially harmful to the participants.

While the ban had no effect on the ability for British consumers to view such acts, it did make the situation somewhat nebulously dangerous for porn producers. Therefore, even though Miss Sugarcookie herself doesn't tend to err on the harder side of pornography, she was still scared enough by it that she took her business to Budapest, where it has flourished ever since.

“The wording of the rules seemed too vague and open to interpretation to me, especially things like “humiliation.” Could someone argue that all pornography is humiliating?” she said. “I'm naturally cautious so I decided it was better to move everything abroad just in case.”

And just like that, one of the most promising, young, pornographic entrepreneurs Britain had, took her business elsewhere.

Source: Harriet Sugarcookie/Twitter

Harriet is in her early 20s and has spent the past few years building a small pornographic empire for herself. She's worn several hats over the years, running a webcam business, a successful blog, filmed real porn with famous porn stars and shoots safe for work videos for her Youtube channel. She's also working on bringing back the concept of the porn magazine in digital form: combining informative articles, with images and videos of her and her contemporaries in various stages of undress and arousal.

Whatever your feelings about her career choices, the fact remains that Harriet is a successful entrepreneur and one of many, who has been entirely shunned by the British establishment on moral grounds alone.

When she moved her business and personal life abroad, Harriet really did move everything. She moved her home there, the headquarters of her business and relocated her servers to the United States. Perhaps more impactful though, is that she stopped directly catering to the UK. While her site and services are still some of the most popular of all independent platforms visited by British consumers, she sees it as far too risky a market to go after due to the way porn is attacked by regulators.

“Right now the UK makes up just eight per cent of our revenue. That seems like a pretty big number but really, losing eight per cent of our business isn't going to affect us much at all. We just have to work out how much it will cost us to comply,” she said.

And that's the biggest question here. How much will what the government wants to force upon pornography websites, cost them to implement it? If it's more than those sites can hope to bring in otherwise, Harriet and her co-producers will likely self-censor to keep themselves from falling afoul of the law. Indeed the Sugarcookie empire may simply block all British visitors to avoid any problems in the future.

In such an environment, actors and would be producers like Harriet Sugarcookie would never be able to build a career as she did. Smaller producers will simply not be able to compete with the sites and services that can afford to comply with regulations.

It could be so impactful, that Sugarcookie's business partner even wrote a *NSFW* tongue in cheek blog *NSFW*  about why such laws are actually great for established companies: because it will kill off their competition.

One of the main points highlighted by that piece, is that this legislation stands to stymy a change in the porn industry which is seeing actors and producers form their own independent organisations and business, much like Miss Sugarcookie has done. Doing things their own way lets members of the industry earn a much better wage for their time and give them more creative control; indie freedoms are championed in almost every other industry, but its rise in pornography may well be halted by the DEB. At least in the UK.

That ultimately means less work for the actors, producers, make up artists, camera operators, key grips, editors and many other people who work in the industry – despite the hits it's taken in recent years.

To Harriet though, that seems to be what the government want to achieve with its legislation.

“If ISPs or the government did have to tell people “Watch out! There's porn on the internet!” everyone with think it ridiculous,” she said. “For us it kind of proves that the bill isn't about protecting children, it's about hurting the adult industry.”


John Jonik hitting the nail on the head

But protecting the children is once again the wrapping that this bill has been cloaked in. Politicians claim that porn is still too easy to access online and following David Cameron's mandatory porn filters and Theresa May's own moral crusades, the DEB is just the next in line. As parliament's own debates have shown though, porn is far too pervasive online to be stopped entirely. Banning Twitter would be an exercise in futility and yet pornography exists in spades on the social network.

So what can we do to prevent children from accessing it?

According to Harriet, there's already a far more effective form of policing in place:

“Parents. If the government is really worried that some parents don't realise that there is porn on the internet, then why not just make it law that ISPs inform people that there is content on the internet that may be harmful to children and offer a choice of content control software or an internet filter,” she said. “Or even do one of those awareness campaigns that has been so effective with smoking and drinking? It's a much simpler plan than what's proposed and removes all the extremely serious privacy and freedom of speech concerns the Digital Economy Bill brings up.”

Because that's what it all boils down to. As we cautioned back in 2014 when certain pornographic acts were banned, pornography is once again at the forefront of British freedoms. Being able to view legal content online in your own home is an intrinsic right of living within a ‘free' country. Freedom to choose what you watch, what you consume and what ideas you subscribe to are a keystone of the democratic society we are a part of.

“So let's just stop being hysterical about it and trying to impose our morals on other people,” Harriet concluded. “Britain is supposed to be a tolerant country, isn't it?”

You can find more about Harriet Sugarcookie on her various social networking profiles, her Youtube channel and on her website.

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xHamster porn site protests with sex education promotion https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/jon-martindale/xhamster-porn-site-protests-with-sex-education-promotion/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/jon-martindale/xhamster-porn-site-protests-with-sex-education-promotion/#respond Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:24:09 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=321424 It turns out PornHub isn't the only porn website helping to encourage sex education to U.S. citizens. Fellow nude-tube video site, xHamster has responded to the Utah state's rejection of opt-in, evidence-based, sexual education, by rerouting Utah visitors to its site, to its “The Box” series of sexual education videos on Youtube. The debate about sex education …

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It turns out PornHub isn't the only porn website helping to encourage sex education to U.S. citizens. Fellow nude-tube video site, xHamster has responded to the Utah state's rejection of opt-in, evidence-based, sexual education, by rerouting Utah visitors to its site, to its “The Box” series of sexual education videos on Youtube.

The debate about sex education in schools is one that is surprisingly relevant, even in 2017, but especially so in the U.S.. In the state of Utah, lawmakers recently rejected a bill that would have simply made it so that parents could opt-in for their children to attend the classes (thanks Vocativ). Instead, now those children will have to rely on what they can learn outside of the classroom, but now xHamster is fighting back.

Visiting the porn site as a resident of Utah (or using a proxy or VPN) will see your access to the videos on there temporarily blocked by a message which reads:

“Utahns consume the most porn per capita of any state, but have some of the lowest levels of sexual education. We're here to change that.”

Clicking “I don't care,” will send visitors right through to the content they were after, but if instead they “check out the box,” they'll be sent to xHamsters Youtube channel of the same name. The Box answers common questions from people about sex, including dispelling myths and having longer form discussions about particular topics.

“It's time to get a real education on sex. xHamster, the greatest porn site in the world, is taking a stance on sex positivity and educating the truth about sex to the world!” one of the video's description reads.

xHamster said that as well as looking to counter the recent legislation rejection, it wants to raise awareness of the double standards of law makers, who make it hard for children and adults to access sexual education, and yet also campaign heavily against pornography. It rejected claims that porn itself should be used for educational purposes, which is why xHamster has been running its Youtube channel for over a year.

“While we love porn, we don’t think that it should be relied on for sex ed any more than Star Wars is a substitute for science class,” a statement from the company reads.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Can we all agree that sexual education is the most important way to ward of teen pregnancy and disease and foster loving and healthy relationships? It doesn't encourage sex, it encourages healthy sex. Ignoring that teens are interested in sex while their hormones rage away, or simply teaching abstinence, is irresponsible and very unhelpful.

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Digital Economy Bill puts blocking onus on ‘ancillary’ sites https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/digital-economy-bill-could-put-blocking-onus-on-ancillary-websites/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/digital-economy-bill-could-put-blocking-onus-on-ancillary-websites/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2016 19:13:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=315265 The Digital Economy Bill (DEB) has a lot of people worried, driving many to take up VPN subscriptions to try and give them the privacy that the bill would strip away. It looks like the matter may become ever more complicated though, as the government looks to pass the buck, leaving innocent websites caught in …

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The Digital Economy Bill (DEB) has a lot of people worried, driving many to take up VPN subscriptions to try and give them the privacy that the bill would strip away. It looks like the matter may become ever more complicated though, as the government looks to pass the buck, leaving innocent websites caught in the crossfire, no way to complain.

The DEB was initially intended to help improve internet access speeds across the UK, but was co-opted by amendments in the latter part of this year, to enforce age checks on any site showing nudity or ‘porn,' as well as threaten with ISP level blocks if they don't comply. However when it comes to “ancillary websites,” like Reddit and Twitter, responsibility for those blocks may be forced upon the sites themselves, rather than ISPs.

As was highlighted in the House of Lords during a recent debate, demanding that Twitter be blocked at the ISP level would make politicians “look like idiots.” What this means however, is that the government, or rather its appointed regulatory body for this matter, the BBFC will demand that sites like Twitter do the blocking itself. That means blocking individual Twitter accounts, simply because they showed nudity.

houseoflords

The House of Lords is the last place to debate the bill, where amendments may be added. Source: Terry Moore/Wikimedia

However as the Open Rights Group points out, there is no legal compulsion for Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr or any other number of sites to do this. That may mean that these sites simply ignore the order, which is good for freedom of expression, but not so great for them. With the onus on them, they face the difficulty of on one hand angering the public by acting on something that is not legally binding, or technically aiding and abetting the easing of porn access to minors – ‘protecting the children' is what this bill amendment is all about.

This means that should any page or account be blocked unfairly, say in the case of breast-feeding images – which have been targeted erroneously in the past – the only recourse will be to appeal to the sites in question, which will have no legal reason to help. Indeed they face potential problems of their own if they rescind a block, which may encourage them to be more heavy handed than not.

This becomes increasingly problematic when you consider that there may be discussions with payment providers to halt payments to those breaching the rule. This has the potential to do even more damage to the flagging British porn industry, which has already been hit hard in recent years by crack downs on perfectly legal content online.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: These bills get worse and worse the more we learn about them. It's even more demoralising considering how fast they've been rushed through parliament with little opposition. 

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Porn age verification will enable credit card fraud, warns ORG https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/porn-age-verification-will-enable-credit-card-fraud-warns-org/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/porn-age-verification-will-enable-credit-card-fraud-warns-org/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:06:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=312224 The Open Rights Group has warned that the UK's recent push for age verification on pornography sites as part of the Digital Economy Bill, could lead to more people being at risk of credit card and identify fraud. Although credit card checks exist for purchases, age-gates that use credit cards opens up many more people …

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The Open Rights Group has warned that the UK's recent push for age verification on pornography sites as part of the Digital Economy Bill, could lead to more people being at risk of credit card and identify fraud. Although credit card checks exist for purchases, age-gates that use credit cards opens up many more people to potential data theft.

The Digital Economy Bill is a piece of legislation currently passing thought he various houses of UK parliament and if enacted, would bring about many sweeping changes to the way the online world works in the UK. The most commonly cited problem with it though is the forcing of legitimate age verification checks on sites that host pornography. If the sites don't do that, they can be fined or blocked, censoring them entirely.

Although no system has been put forward as a standard for how these sites could force age verification, the most commonly suggested is credit card checks. But if many thousands or millions of people begin inputting credit card details on sites that may or may not securely store such information, that could put them at serious risk.

agecheck

If you saw this every time you looked at porn, you'd be far more lax about where you input that information. Source: ORG

“If asking for credit card details becomes common or permissible, and a credible ask in the minds of UK citizens, then the government will have created a gold mine for criminals to operate scam porn sites targeted at the UK, inviting people to supply their credit cards to scam sites for “Age Verification,” the Open Rights Group warns.

It would be easy to set up any kind of site that was linked to from social networks or similar, with salacious content hidden behind a “prove you're 18,” gate that requires inputting personal information. It's not hard to imagine such a scam becoming common place.

“Anything that normalises the entry of credit card details into pages where the user isn’t making a payment will increase the fraudulent use of such cards,” ORG continues. “And if a website is validating credit cards to prove age, but not verifying them, then the internationally agreed standards to protect credit card data are unlikely to apply to them.”

Even for legitimate sites, it would certainly be easier to implement effective, but insecure age verification to avoid being blocked or fined by the government. Who's to say that those sites couldn't be hijacked or hacked and credit data stolen and sold on?

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: More surveillance state moves by the British government. First the Investigatory Powers Bill that forces internet connection records and now this shortsighted legislative act. We really need to see more technical expects in parliament. 

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Open Rights Groups slams porn censorship proposal https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/open-rights-groups-slams-porn-censorship-proposal/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/open-rights-groups-slams-porn-censorship-proposal/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2016 12:37:18 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=310804 Digital advocacy organisation, the Open Rights Group, has lambasted a number of politicians for making a proposed amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, which would make it perfectly legal to block porn sites which don't add effective age registration. On top of labelling the idea censorship, the ORG criticised the need for any blocks or …

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Digital advocacy organisation, the Open Rights Group, has lambasted a number of politicians for making a proposed amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, which would make it perfectly legal to block porn sites which don't add effective age registration. On top of labelling the idea censorship, the ORG criticised the need for any blocks or age checks in the first place.

According to an OfCom study, 70 per cent of households have no children in them and of those that do, 90 per cent of parents control what their children see and do online. It's that miniscule group of children that the age checks on porn sites are designed to protect and yet blanket censorship of non-complying sites would affect every web user. Or at least those unable to implement a VPN or proxy connection.

youstop

Source: GeorgeHodan/PublicDomainPictures

Regardless, ORG points out how indiscriminate this sort of legislation is, and how it highlights major problems with the idea of effective age checks in the first place.

“That MPs are resorting to proposals for website blocking tells us that the age verification proposals themselves are flawed,” ORG said. “MPs should be asking about the costs and privacy impacts, and why such a lack of thought has gone into this.”

Perhaps most importantly though, ORG highlights a much more effective technique for improving children's attitudes and knowledge of sex: encouraging education and talks about pornography, which as it highlights, will not go away, just because a few websites are blocked.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The idea that anyone in government believes blocks will be effective, after the endless trouble they've had dealing with pirate sites boggles the mind. Either they wilfully ignore the truth, or are ignorant to it – either way, they shouldn't be allowed to make policy decisions based on these sort of technological issues. 

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Porn Site block protests against forced-condom law in California https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/porn-site-block-protests-against-forced-condom-law-in-california/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/porn-site-block-protests-against-forced-condom-law-in-california/#respond Wed, 19 Oct 2016 10:25:51 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=309077 Californian's attempting to access some of the world's most popular pornographic websites this week will have found it a little harder than normal. In protest of Proposition 60, which would make it mandatory for porn performers to wear condoms during shooting, a number of sites blocked Californians from viewing any content at all, as a …

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Californian's attempting to access some of the world's most popular pornographic websites this week will have found it a little harder than normal. In protest of Proposition 60, which would make it mandatory for porn performers to wear condoms during shooting, a number of sites blocked Californians from viewing any content at all, as a form of digital sit in.

Although Proposition 60 has caused ire among pornographic actors and staff behind the camera for its forced condom wearing, the real kicker is that if enacted it would allow everyday citizens to sue pornographic producers if they consider the scenes in violation of the law. This, content creators claim, would expose the industry to endless lawsuits and stalking through the courts.

kinkblock

Fortunately for those protesting Prop. 60, the public will have a chance to vote on the ballot, which will take place on 8th November. The blocking of many of the most popular porn sites in California made it impossible for locals to access the content earlier this week and also encouraged them to vote against the bill in November.

In preparation should the bill pass anyway though, a number of high-profile porn producers and studios have said that they may permanently block their content from being viewed in California.

Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for fetish production company, Kink, said in a statement to Vocative: “Prop 60 isn’t a public health measure, it’s a public harassment measure for adult performers. If we have to block access to California in order to protect the performers who work with us, that’s what we’ll do. And should this initiative pass, it’s something we’ll be looking at doing in California on a permanent basis after November 8.”

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Much the same as the age gating plans here in the UK, there is no way to completely police nudity or pornography online without massively impeding on the rights of individuals. Pornography between consenting adults should be whatever they want it to be and keeping children from it should the jobs of the parents. It's really that simple. 

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Flash porn videos will soon become a thing of the past https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/flash-porn-videos-will-soon-become-a-thing-of-the-past/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/flash-porn-videos-will-soon-become-a-thing-of-the-past/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2016 10:00:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=305452 In the gradual disintegration of support for Adobe's Flash player, porn sites are some of the last hold outs, but not for much longer. With browsers like Chrome ending support for it in the near future, many of the world's largest porn peddlers are now announcing that they're moving over to HTML5 too. PornHub was just …

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In the gradual disintegration of support for Adobe's Flash player, porn sites are some of the last hold outs, but not for much longer. With browsers like Chrome ending support for it in the near future, many of the world's largest porn peddlers are now announcing that they're moving over to HTML5 too.

PornHub was just the latest in a line of porn sites that has announced it too will be dropping Flash from its site in the near future. HTML 5 should offer better device support, greater performance and much better security than Flash player currently does. The Adobe standard has been plagued by security breaches in recent years and it shows no signs of improving.

Corey Price, vice president of Pornhub, told Motherboard that be believed all sites should switch over to HTML5, including the rest of the pornography community. Redtube is also making the switch currently, with the changeover expected in the next few weeks.

flashchrome

Source: DC Comics

However there are still a number of high profile sites which have yet to make the change. It may be that when Chrome support ends and they see video view counts begin to dwindle, they too will start to move over to the newer standard.

It won't have as much impact as it would have had a few years ago though. With a large majority of pornography viewers utilising their smartphone to watch, where Flash support is flaky if available at all, Chrome's dismissal may not be the end of the world. It may well be that to continue supporting legacy visitors, that some sites continue to operate with Flash as an option, though for the sake of their user's and site security, it seems like a smart plan to make the transition.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I've had Flash disabled for some time now – it's a great way to stop those background adverts. But I do feel sad that it's dying. I really enjoyed its golden years of animation and gaming and will certainly remember its influence on a young me exploring the web for the first time. 

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First they came for the torrent sites, next the UK might block porn https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/first-they-came-for-the-torrent-sites-next-the-uk-might-block-porn/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/first-they-came-for-the-torrent-sites-next-the-uk-might-block-porn/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2016 09:27:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=282275 The British government has, for several years, been trying to convince us all that pornography is terrible and that children's access to it could be one of the worst things imaginable. Its response has been to push for ISP filtering and there's been talk of forcing age gates on sites. But when that doesn't work …

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The British government has, for several years, been trying to convince us all that pornography is terrible and that children's access to it could be one of the worst things imaginable. Its response has been to push for ISP filtering and there's been talk of forcing age gates on sites. But when that doesn't work (and it won't), what will it do? Some are suggesting it might apply the same block orders that have been levied against torrent sites.

The strategy to prevent children viewing porn has been a catastrophe from the start. Inspired by the heavily censored Chinese internet, porn filters have been found blocking everything from sexual education sites, to women's shelter homepages. EU legislation has made it invalid, leading to David Cameron having to seek a specialised opt-out for the UK, so now it's trying to forge age gates on sites.

That fails on account of either not being accurate by requiring no information from the user other than their claimed date of birth, or of being too intrusive and requiring too much information; something that site operators won't comply with for fear of losing traffic. The government can only force such measures on British companies anyway and considering how it's already made a mess of the British porn industry, that influence is far from expansive.

nopornforyou

So what's the next step when Cameron and co. realise that they can't block porn sites that way? Ars thinks they'll start going down the court ordered blocking route, the same used to crack down on torrent sites. And we all know how well that's gone.

While this is good news for those that want to continue accessing porn – a majority of internet users – it does mean that the UK will continue to use heavier handed methods to try and make viewing it harder. That could mean using more draconian tactics that haven't even been considered yet.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Porn is being painted as an enemy and it's just not. Anything that is consensual and legal to perform in the privacy of your own home, should not become illegal just because you turn a camera on. 

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Cameron promises automated filters after EU makes them illegal https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/cameron-promises-automated-filters-after-eu-makes-them-illegal/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/cameron-promises-automated-filters-after-eu-makes-them-illegal/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2015 10:29:38 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=273524 David Cameron was said to have “spluttered over his cornflakes” when the ruling came in from the EU on net-neutrality, that said all data should be treated equally and therefore filters, like the ones put in place by ISPs to block pornography, would no longer be allowed under EU law. However the British Prime Minister …

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David Cameron was said to have “spluttered over his cornflakes” when the ruling came in from the EU on net-neutrality, that said all data should be treated equally and therefore filters, like the ones put in place by ISPs to block pornography, would no longer be allowed under EU law. However the British Prime Minister has a plan and is said to have achieved an opt-out for the UK to prevent the filters being removed and will in future enshrine them into British law to continue their operation.

“When I read my Daily Mail this morning, I sputtered over my cornflakes because we worked so hard to put in place these filters,” Cameron told fellow MPs during a Prime Minister's question time (via Wired) earlier this week. His plan though will see that ruling made ineffective, by the enshrining of pornography filtering in the “law of the land,” to force ISPs to make sure our “children will be protected.”

He also said that it was “vitally important that we enable parents to have that protection for their children.”

chinaukfilters
Cameron has shown a real interest in Chinese filtering companies and may have discussed such measures during the recent visit of President Xi

As much as this is a response to an EU ruling, this is far from the first push Cameron has made towards pornography filtering being mandatory. He introduced it down a slippery slope of legislation in 2013, pushing ISPs to voluntarily filter content, which in turn pushed others to offer it. At this point all of the big ISPs offer filtering by default, requiring new sign-ups to opt-out by special request.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60eKauWFFPk']

There are of course some ISPs that don't filter anything and will even refuse your service if you ask for it.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It's no real surprise at this point that Cameron isn't/wasn't aware that optional porn filters by third parties that specialise in that sort of protection have been available for as long as the internet has been readily accessible. It's also no surprise that someone who works the unusual hours of a Prime Minister would want some sort of automated protection for their children, but other people have more time to check what their kids are doing online. Other people don't need the government to do their job of parenting for them. 

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EU legislation could cripple UK porn filters https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/eu-legislation-could-cripple-uk-porn-filters/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/eu-legislation-could-cripple-uk-porn-filters/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2015 09:28:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=258991 British porn filtering on an opt-out basis has been a bit of a bugbear for us here at KitGuru and many of you have voiced similar sentiment in our comment threads. Fortunately then there is a chance that their very existence could be put in jeopardy by a new piece of EU legislation designed to …

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British porn filtering on an opt-out basis has been a bit of a bugbear for us here at KitGuru and many of you have voiced similar sentiment in our comment threads. Fortunately then there is a chance that their very existence could be put in jeopardy by a new piece of EU legislation designed to tackle roaming charges, that also has wide reaching implications for net neutrality and by proxy, the ability for ISPs to block content.

Known as the Single Telecoms Market Law, hundreds of pages of documentation has been produced on the current state of various aspects of the online world in the EU and how they are being addressed by governments around the continent. There is much that can be improved it claims, but as the IBTimes points out, the most important part is that customers from various countries should have the same service no matter where they are in the EU.

That should mean that travellers from the continent who were able to view pornography or other online sites with impunity, should be able to if visiting the UK.

youporn
Even though few have them enabled, ISP filtering in the UK blocks many sex education and women's shelter sites along with some of the porn

John Carr, the UK government adviser on internet safety, said of an early drafted leaked in May that such a law would put British children at risk. “Online child protection would be destroyed at one stroke,” he said. Though private filtering for families would still be legally available under such a scheme. It would only be the mandatory filtering that may be difficult to justify under such laws.

However not everyone agrees that the law will have such wide sweeping effects. In fact, leader of the Pirate Party UK Cris Chesha doesn't believe it will remove porn filtering from the UK at all. Since the law mentions tiered services and content that does not count towards a customer's bandwidth and that there was easily enough provisions in there to justify the blocking of sites or content based on arbitrary choices.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Any true net-neutrality pushing law should make opt-out filtering of anything invalid. Whether we'll even be a part of the EU by the time this law is expected to come into play in 2017 though, remains to be seen. 

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Oculus VR won’t try to stop VR porn https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/oculus-vr-wont-try-to-stop-vr-porn/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/oculus-vr-wont-try-to-stop-vr-porn/#comments Tue, 19 May 2015 11:22:44 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=250036 If there's one rule the internet has embraced in its short time in this world, it's that if something exists, there is porn of it. The same goes for different mediums too, which is why it didn't take long after virtual reality was brought into the 21st century by Palmer Luckey's Oculus Rift headset, that …

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If there's one rule the internet has embraced in its short time in this world, it's that if something exists, there is porn of it. The same goes for different mediums too, which is why it didn't take long after virtual reality was brought into the 21st century by Palmer Luckey's Oculus Rift headset, that developers started making VR pornography. Fortunately then, for those developers, Oculus has no plans to prevent them from doing so.

“The rift is an open platform. We don’t control what software can run on it. And that’s a big deal,” Luckey said in a recent chat at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference (via Variety).

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That's about the best we can show. I'm sure you can figure out where the unblurred version is.

It's this lack of willingness to act as gatekeeper for VR content that has allowed such varied applications and experiences to appear online already, even before the official consumer release of the Rift headset. However it does also mean that porn will be available, though it's currently in a much more barebones state than many of the other games available for the Dk2 and its contemporaries.

That's great news for the people consuming VR porn, but even better news for the developers, who have it much harder than your average game dev. According to accounts from some developers, they have had payment accounts closed, have been shunned by other developers and have found it hard to garner support from engine makers who don't wish to be associated with the creation of VR porn.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: All that despite the fact that it's likely to be extremely popular when finally done right. 

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New porn laws force Dominatrix content takedown https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/new-porn-laws-force-dominatrix-content-takedown/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/new-porn-laws-force-dominatrix-content-takedown/#comments Wed, 06 May 2015 10:44:48 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=248248 When it was announced late last year that many forms of pornography were being banned in the UK, it caused quite a hubbub, even seeing many British pornographers staging mass face sittings outside parliament to protest the criminalisation of many female sex acts. However when it was realised that the viewing of such material wasn't …

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When it was announced late last year that many forms of pornography were being banned in the UK, it caused quite a hubbub, even seeing many British pornographers staging mass face sittings outside parliament to protest the criminalisation of many female sex acts. However when it was realised that the viewing of such material wasn't illegal, just the production, much of the buzz died down and people went back to their viewing habits as before. Those making the content can't rest so easy though, as two Dominatrix have now been hit by the new laws, with one forced to pull down their content and another now facing potential fines.

The content in question involved heavy whipping, which was deemed to have the potential to cause “lasting physical harm,” and in another instance, “repeated strong kicks to the genitals which appear to draw blood.” While these acts are perfectly legal to take part in within the UK, they are not legal to film. Due to the ruling, one Dominatrix, Megan Furie, has complied and apologised, while another, Misress R'eal has so far refused and faces potential criminal charges and fines under current legislation.

The group behind this latest crack down on British pornographers is the Authority for Television on Demand (ATVOD), which was initially created in 2010 to regulate the likes of BBC Iplayer, 4OD and other services. However it recently appointed itself as the regulator of “tv-like” websites too, including all streaming services and it's taken on the task of regulating pornography in the UK too, despite it having no ability to block content produced overseas, thereby making any takedowns it engages in an entirely pointless activity in terms of regulating access by the public.

atvod2
“Thank god the internet is safe from self-employed business owners taking part in consensual activities.”

Whether this is ATVOD deliberately putting its head in the sand while it barrels ahead, or if it's simple naivety is unclear, but what is, is how out of touch its spokespeople are. In a statement it said that the two websites it was currently looking to have content removed from, “went beyond that which could be sold only to adults in licensed sex shops.” As if that was how even a modest per centage of the populace still viewed their pornography.

What it does instead, is demonise a small but profitable sector of society that films entirely consensual acts. Many like Sex and Censorship's Jerry Barnett, believe this is part of a stigmatising of pornography and a campaign of censorship driven by greed and little more.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The sad part is, both David Cameron and Ed Milliband have pledged to continue crackdowns on pornography. Amidst a debate across the globe about net neutrality, personal privacy, intelligence agency spying oversight and mass data collection, British politicians appear to care more about preventing people from looking at pornography that they think is a bit off centre.

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Charities call for change to police’s response to child abuse images https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/charities-call-for-change-to-polices-response-to-child-abuse-images/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/charities-call-for-change-to-polices-response-to-child-abuse-images/#respond Mon, 30 Mar 2015 08:10:27 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=242634 Several prominent charities designed to combat child abuse have called on the government and police forces to change the way they respond to finding images of sexual or physical abuse against children. They also want to see it made possible for victims of abuse and their parents to be able to sue those found in …

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Several prominent charities designed to combat child abuse have called on the government and police forces to change the way they respond to finding images of sexual or physical abuse against children. They also want to see it made possible for victims of abuse and their parents to be able to sue those found in possession of images related to the crime.

The organisations behind the recommendation form part of the Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS), which includes groups such as Barnardo's, Kidscape, the NSPCC and Action for Children. Together they want to see the police's first response to the discovery of child abuse imagery, be to find the youngsters in the pictures and remove them from their abusive situation. If parents are not knowledgeable about the abuse, they should be informed, the charities say.

However they also want to open up those accused of being in possession of such images, to new legal ramifications. If found in possession of pictures of known victims, those children or their representative guardians should be able to sue the image holder, they said. This would also open up those abused internationally to seek compensation through English courts.

charities

Claire Lilley, NSPCC head of child safety online, said (via the Telegraph): “Any initiative that helps eradicate child abuse images is worth serious consideration. Financial compensation may go some way to helping the young victims rebuild their lives.”

One slightly more controversial recommendation as part of this move however, is that the CHIS wants to see financial service providers that allow pornographic websites without a decent age verification system, to be opened up to criminal action. Although arguably companies that provide such services should be aware of what sites they deal with, it's hard to imagine any website – pornographic or otherwise – with what could be described as a decent, or accurate age versification system.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Although I doubt many will argue against harsher treatment for those found to posses child abuse images, it seems like looking to receive financial compensation may be drawing away focus from punishing and combating the worst aspect of the crime. 

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Porn, the new battleground for the internet https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/porn-the-new-battleground-for-the-internet/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/porn-the-new-battleground-for-the-internet/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2014 17:40:48 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=224311 If there's one thing the internet loves, it's a good ol' fashioned brawl. We take on all comers too, whether you're a piece of copyright legislation or a woman dumping a cat in a bin; we'll probably win too. You wouldn't imagine it, but there's a lot pluck in this game playing, social networking, meme …

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If there's one thing the internet loves, it's a good ol' fashioned brawl. We take on all comers too, whether you're a piece of copyright legislation or a woman dumping a cat in a bin; we'll probably win too. You wouldn't imagine it, but there's a lot pluck in this game playing, social networking, meme factory, especially when it comes to things we love. Which is why it's so surprising that there's been little push-back on the British government's crackdown on what a lot of people consider the internet's main function: porn.

Pornography isn't something people give a lot of thought to of course, mostly because once they're finished looking at it they get on with something a bit more productive. But it's actually incredibly important. Being able to make it, view it and distribute it, is intrinsically linked with our freedoms of expressions and freedom to do what we want with our own bodies. Porn, both the consumption and construction, are very tightly linked to human rights.

And yet in the UK at least, those rights are being eroded. In recent years, obscenity has become the new scapegoat for many changes to the law which have gradually chipped away at the rights of individuals and businesses to view and produce pornography. It's now gotten to the point that on the 1st December, the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 came into play, which makes many sex acts illegal to film, including (but far from limited to) female ejaculation, spanking, and face sitting (more comprehensive list here).

spanking2
Pictured: Illegal porn

If that seems ridiculous to you, you're not the only one. Fortunately it won't affect consumers, but it does make it illegal to make that sort of content, which essentially means if you're in the middle of it and flick a camera on, you're breaking the law.

Of course though, none of this is news to those have been campaigning in an attempt to halt this progression of restrictive legislation, like Sex and Censorship's Jerry Barnett. In the wake of this recent ATVOD law being passed, we reached out to him to discuss the current state of pornography legislation in the UK and how it impacts our freedoms and basic human rights.

“There's a message that goes throughout government and regulators, that British parents are irresponsible and are failing to protect their children, and therefore they need to do it for us,” he said, when asked about the new legislation.

As a father himself, understandably Mr Barnett finds this concept insulting. But he's in a unique position to look at the issue, having been involved in the porn industry himself for the best part of a decade. Beginning as a web consultant in the 90's, Mr Barnett began working with pornographers – who needed some of the most demanding websites in the early days of the internet – and eventually began his own site in the early 2000s, which ran until 2012.

“Over the last decade, sexual expression has come under heavy attack,” he said, highlighting the growth of tabloid and government sensationalism. One example he drew up involved so-called, “rape porn,” which David Cameron pledged to make illegal following a few weeks of “moral panic.”

This wasn't the first time Mr Cameron has gone after pornography of course, with a big push to ban “extreme porn,” involving any form of violence (simulated or otherwise) as well as any act which could be considered physically damaging.

Clearly, the governments and regulators draw a line between this and more mainstream porn. When I asked Mr Barnett where he would draw the line if in power, he said that there was only one line and that was between people who agreed to be filmed performing those acts and those who hadn't.

“There's a spectrum of pornography, but the only line to be drawn is between consent and non-consent,” he said. “As long as everyone on camera has agreed to what's going on, that's a very clear line. Organisations like ATVOD, OFCOM and the BBFC, are drawing lines in a completely arbitray manner.”

atvod
“Isnt' life better now we're being told what we can watch dear?

ATVOD is the group that has managed to push through the latest regulatory changes, giving itself much more power as the body that polices video on demand – though it recently extended its own (loose) definition to cover websites as well. It's reasoning for this latest crack down on pornography in the UK, is the same line that's toed by many groups that push to censor anything: ‘won't somebody think of the children.'

The specific power ATVOD has, derives from the EU's AVMS Directive, which states that: “if an on-demand programme service contains material which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of eighteen, the material must be made available in a manner which secures that such persons will not normally see or hear it.”

The problem, as Mr Barnett points out, is that there isn't actually much evidence to suggest that sexually explicit material does harm minors. In-fact, OfCom itself conducted studies in 2005 and 2011, both of which concluded that there was no real evidence to support the idea that watching porn at a young age causes moral or emotional impairment. In-fact in the context of sexual violence, the opposite was actually found, where those who had viewed porn as a ‘minor' were less likely to commit sexual violence as they aged.

So OfCom, the government and ATVOD want to censor porn on the basis that it harms minors, when there is no real evidence to suggest that it does. Which makes you wonder what this big push for a porn crack down is really about.

“Sexual expression is the canary in the coal mine,” Barnett said. “This is a general campaign by ATVOD to try and take control of the internet, which has been ongoing for several years.

“What this does, is lay the groundwork for much stronger censorship,”he said. “It essentially criminalises content that is viewable without proof of age, which makes 99 per cent of porn sites in the world illegal as far as UK law goes.

“What this does is create an atmosphere for stronger censorship, so ATVOD can now go and lobby the government and say all these millions of sites break UK law, we need ways to attack them.”

If this is all sounding quite familiar, it's because it's almost identical to the way the government has handled complaints and lobbying from groups like the MPAA, BPI and RIAA when it comes to piracy. All of them have managed to secure block orders against torrent websites, regardless of how much legal content they host. That too is an infringement on freedom of speech and expression. It's censorship and here, ATVOD is trying to do the same.

“All of these groups would like some way to add a site to a block list much faster,” said Barnett. Whether that will come to pass remains to be seen, but he's convinced that in the mean time we'll see sites having their ability to advertise pulled and eventually, a black listing of their URL.

youporn
No word yet on whether having your own eSports team circumvents the rules…

Of course if you were of the cynical mind, this could all sound like a big conspiracy. Surely there aren't people actively trying to censor the internet through some obscure government body by making sure that no one can produce female ejaculation porn in the UK?

When I put this to Mr Barnett he agreed that there wasn't some Illuminati-like group behind it all, but suggested that that didn't make it any less dangerous.

“At the individual level it's people worried about a particular issue, but when you look at the bigger picture, there's certainly coordination between the grass roots groups that create a moral panic and regulators and people in government that pass laws,” he said. Adding, “There are absolutely people with a vested interest that know what they're doing.”

If all of this was about protecting children based around the moral standards of society, none of this new legislation would be required either. Since the 1850s, there's been the Obscene Publications Act, which makes it illegal to produce much of what the government considers “extreme” porn anyway. This law was refined in the 1950s to allow for a little more artistic expression (E.G. swearing in novels), but it has remained in place and allows the government to bring people forth on the charge of obscenity, leaving a jury to decide upon whether the person is guilty or not.

Except nowadays it's barely cited.

“The obscene publications act is used less and less now, because juries look at this stuff and don't judge it as obscene, making it very hard to get a prosecution,” said Barnett. “This is why the state has been introducing new laws which don't rely on a jury to decide, leading to more and more draconian censorship laws.”

All of this seems especially bizarre from a political stand point. Wasn't it just a few years ago that David Cameron was talking up the idea of a “big society,” with less government involvement. Apparently though, this is just business as usual for the Conservatives:

“Conservative party has always been an odd mix of pro-free market, liberal economics, but conservative moral attitudes,” said Barnett. “That's the strange coalition that the party has always been. Margaret Thatcher was a huge anti-porn advocate, but wanted the media to be deregulated.”

davidcameron
Cameron has repeatedly praised Chinese filters for their ability to block porn, despite the country's heavy censorship

Barnett doesn't seem to have any political allegiance however, as during our hour long chat he slammed most politicians, suggesting that the majorty of them were naive and bowed too easily to moral panic. Specifically, he said that Labour had lost most of its libertarian qualities. “Which is a shame,” he said, “because it led a lot of the sexual revolution of the 20th century: decriminalising homosexuality, abortion, contraception and that kind of thing. That element of the left appears to be dead and if anything, modern day Labour is more socially conservative than the right, which is a very strange situation to be in.”

When I asked him if there were any parties that could be held up as examples of pro-sexual freedom, he highlighted the Pirate Party UK as being very for evidence based policy in all respects. Unfortunately though, as he pointed out, it's support base is far too small to consider it able to enact much change in the short term.

What Mr Barnett did believe could and should change in the near future, was sexual education. That, according to him, was how we avert many of the “problems” people associate with pornography.

“We have some of the worst sex education in Europe. It's so backwards that instead of better educating children, we try and censor the internet,” he said. “I do agree that we should be wary of children learning all about sex from pornography, but if you let children get to puberty without teaching them about sex, then that's what's going to happen.”

Barnett would like to see age appropriate sex education start much earlier, perhaps taking cues from other countries around the world which have a much more liberal view of sex. He was also keen to see education based around consent and mutual pleasure.

“Children should absolutely be taught – in sexual education and otherwise – that you cannot do something to someone else without their consent.”

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Other country's take it far more seriously. This is Argentina's giant ‘condom' to bring awareness to World Aids Day 2005

Whatever change we do make though, we need to take responsibility for our children's sexual attitudes and not blame pornography: “When kids hit puberty they become sexually interested and if they haven't been educated by then, then you haven't done a good job of parenting,” he said.

Of course this is the big crux of the argument, who's responsibility is it to manage young people's access to pornography? For Barnett, it's for the children's parents to handle.

“There are mechanisms to protect children and there always have been. ATVOD is very good at avoiding this issue: parental control software has been around for the better part of two decades, and it's getting better and is built into smartphones and tablets. If parents want to protect their children they can.

“For me personally, I don't feel it's necessary to implement parental controls on the machine of someone who's 14,15, but that's for parents to decide,” he added.

He went on to say that this is quite a common feeling among parents, with most giving their teenage children free reign on the internet.

“Parents aren't as scared of pornography as the newspapers and government tell them they should be and polls indicate that,” said Barnett. “Parents don't tend to block their teenagers' access,” he said, but pointed out that OfCom and other groups class those teens as children, which is why the regulators can make it sound like parents are being irresponsible and therefore recommend larger government oversight.

And it feels like such a shame, as in the government's red-mist of ‘protecting' the children, it's actually acting in a very sexist manner, which is likely to do more harm to the way people perceive women than pornography every could.

Along with banning female ejaculation (whilst leaving male ejaculation as totally above board) cracking down on the grass-roots adult film industry in the UK is essentially dampening female entrepreneurship.

“It's a fear of female sexuality,” Barnett continued. “I've met lots of women in porn and they are typically liberated, happy people. They are sexually liberated women and that sort of woman has always been hated. Most of the money in the industry goes to women and the sex industry as a whole has always largely been controlled by women, which is by and large the case today, especially with the internet.”

“If you look at webcams,” he said, “there's no middle man. That's self employed women connecting directly with the customer.”

Contrary to many people's perceptions of women in porn as victims, Barnett believes it's one of the most female empowering industries out there, even pointing to a Feminist Porn conference held in Toronto each year called FPCon.

Ultimately, Barnett sees ATVOD and the government's recent actions as a misguided but deliberate crackdown on female independence.

“Throughout history there have been swings against female nudity,” he said. “There's a recurrent idea that female flesh is dangerous and insights men to do bad things.

“In the past they would have said female sexuality brings the devil into your heart, whereas today they would describe it as objectification. It's just a more modernised form of non-evidence based arguments.”

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It doesn't matter, they're both equally illegal in British porn
Too conclude our chat, I asked Mr Barnett what he would like to see in the future. While the one closest to us seems a bit bleak on the censorship front, does he have hope for something better?

“Culturally, we need to establish that bigotry against sexual women is as bad as any form of prejudice,” he said. “Racism, sexism etc. Slut shaming is just incredibly common and acceptable and that needs to stop. Women should be allowed to be sexual beings if they want to.

“From a legal point of view, there's loads that could be done though. We have a whole raft of stupid laws we don't need. In the long term, I'd like to see a first-ammendment type law, which would actually protect free expression in the UK. As it stands, it's always in favour of censorship and that needs to change. It should be illegal to censor unless you can come up with a good argument for it.”

He closed on a warning however, stating: “This anti-porn panic is going beyond that and becoming a generalised witch hunt which goes far beyond sexual expression, targeting page 3 and the banning of offensive speech on university campuses.

“Porn is just one piece in the [censorship] jigsaw.”

I'd like to thank Jerry Barnett, head of Sex and Censorship UK, for chatting with me. You can read some of his own commentary on censorship one his official blog, Facebook and Twitter. Look out for his book, Porn Panic, soon.

If you'd like to help Mr Barnett achieve his goal of reversing British censorship, you can get in touch with your MP and ask them to stand against legislation like the AMSR. There's also an online petition that you can sign, asking David Cameron to remove restrictions for on-demand porn.

KitGuru Says: Porn has been at the forefront of our society's freedoms for decades. Larry Flynt, the founder of Hustler famously took a bullet for those freedoms. We should at least email our MP about it.

Image source: Wikimedia, Richard Shatzberger

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Nobody wants Cameron’s porn filters https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/nobody-wants-camerons-porn-filters/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/nobody-wants-camerons-porn-filters/#comments Wed, 23 Jul 2014 14:04:28 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=204277 It seems like I'm not the only one that doesn't want David Cameron censoring the web with his China sponsored pornography filters, as when it comes to new users opting out of them, almost everyone is doing so. In fact, the numbers of people agreeing to the filters are in the single digit percentages. Industry …

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It seems like I'm not the only one that doesn't want David Cameron censoring the web with his China sponsored pornography filters, as when it comes to new users opting out of them, almost everyone is doing so. In fact, the numbers of people agreeing to the filters are in the single digit percentages.

Industry watchdog OfCom recently commissioned a report to see how many people were taking up the offer of the filters, which thanks to Mr Cameron, are offered as a mandatory check for all new customers of all the major ISPs in the country. In the future, the same choice will be made to current customers too.

Most people it seems though, said no to the move, which is impressive, considering many people were worried that due to embarrassment far higher numbers would have their internet filtered instead of speaking up.

cameron
“I barely use this hand anymore.”

The totals for how many peopled signed up for each ISP, were as follows:

  • BT: 5 per cent
  • Sky: 8 per cent
  • TalkTalk: 36 per cent
  • Virgin Media: 4 per cent

TalkTalk is thought likely to be higher than most, since it's offered its filtering system for much longer and has it as a verified sales point, so people are more likely to switch to its service because of it. Virgin Media's results may be lower than actuality too, since only a third of all new sign-ups were offered the filtering option.

While pornography is the main focus of these filters however, they actually go far further, with many blocking sites that have any reference to sex (including educational sites), as well as ones relating to alcohol, tobacco, violence, or file sharing sites. Others can block gambling and games sites as well.

The most vague of the bunch however block sites that are “obscene and tasteless.” As subjective at that might be, BT describes it as:  “Sites that offer advice on how to commit illegal or criminal activities, or to avoid detection. These can include how to commit murder, build bombs, pick locks, etc. Sites with information about illegal manipulation of electronic devices, hacking, fraud and illegal distribution of software will be blocked along with content that may be offensive or tasteless such as bathroom humour, or gruesome or even frightening content such as shocking depictions of blood or wounds, or cruel animal treatment.”

KitGuru Says: To clarify, that's animal cruelty, hacking and illegal services, blocked alongside toilet humour. The fact that they're even considered as related is astounding.

Image Source: DFID

Thanks BBC News

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UK porn filters are blocking anti-drug-war sites https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/uk-porn-filters-are-blocking-anti-drug-war-sites/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/uk-porn-filters-are-blocking-anti-drug-war-sites/#respond Wed, 09 Jul 2014 08:27:51 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=202185 Much of our coverage of the British government last year involved David Cameron's courting of Chinese firms and how he was very interested in the filters they put up to stop citizens looking at a large variety of content, including anti-government messages. However, the big problem Mr Cameron saw in the UK, was pornography. Seeing …

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Much of our coverage of the British government last year involved David Cameron's courting of Chinese firms and how he was very interested in the filters they put up to stop citizens looking at a large variety of content, including anti-government messages. However, the big problem Mr Cameron saw in the UK, was pornography. Seeing the job of preventing children viewing it as something the government should be in charge of instead of parents, Cameron called for filters to block it on an opt-out basis. Since then, much more than just pornography has been blocked, including it seems, many critics of the war on drugs.

Now whether you agree with current drug policies in the UK, or consider the tide turning in the right direction in several US states and South America, doesn't matter, both sides of the argument deserve to be heard. However as HuffPost points out, as many as six ISPs are blocking some of the biggest anti-drug-war websites. These include ones like Students for Sensible Drug Policy (blocked by four ISPs), Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (blocked by four ISPs), NORML (blocked by three), Americans for Safe Access (blocked by six), Clear-uk.org (blocked by three) and it goes on and on.

blocked
All blocks checked with Blocked.org.uk

In all fairness though, some of the pro-drug war websites have also been blocked, but by far fewer ISPs. Filters for TalkTalk blocked DrugFree and Virgin and BT Blocked LearnAboutSam, but other than that, all the other big ones are accessible on every ISP.

This may simply be a case of automated filters catching out some sites rather than others, but this is exactly the sort of censorship that we discussed when the idea of the filters was first proposed. That problem is compounded by the fact that these filters are opt-out. For those that don't know they exist, can't be bothered to ring through to their ISP or are too embarrassed (because they want to look at more than just anti-drug-war websites) they won't be able to access that content without at least some passing knowledge of proxies.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: On a more sinister note, it could also be entirely deliberate. If that was true, it would show the UK burying its head even deeper under the sand while the world's drug laws change around it. 

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MPs out of touch with porn crackdown report https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/mps-out-of-touch-with-porn-crackdown-report/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/mps-out-of-touch-with-porn-crackdown-report/#respond Thu, 20 Mar 2014 09:52:53 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=183514 Despite David Cameron getting his way on recent ISP level filtering, British politicians are looking to tighten the law and controls even more, demanding that every site featuring “harmful adult content,” implement an age verification system or face blocking in a similar style to sites involved in piracy. This comes from a report by the …

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Despite David Cameron getting his way on recent ISP level filtering, British politicians are looking to tighten the law and controls even more, demanding that every site featuring “harmful adult content,” implement an age verification system or face blocking in a similar style to sites involved in piracy.

This comes from a report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which ultimately believes that online porn is too accessible to children and that its viewing is damaging to their development. While typically the wording there is incredibly vague and either implies a deliberate loose definition to cast a wider net, or a lack of knowledge about the subject and moral preaching, the report still has plenty of recommendations for ‘improvements' to the current system.

It wants content hidden in a similar manner to pornographic magazines on the top shelf of shops, age verification based on credit card data, metadata that tips ISPs off to the site's content, stricter filtering at the ISP level, increased prosecution of any site found to be in breach of the 1959 Obscene Publications act and the blocking of sites that don't hinder access by children. Unfortunately, almost all of these ideas seem totally flawed.

Firstly, the mention of magazines in the same breath as online streaming porn seems redundant. Their sale, distribution and location are entirely different and practically unrelated. Secondly, considering the most popular porn sites in the world are free, credit card age verification would be impossible. Likewise, any age verification gates would just be clicked through by determined children anyway. Thirdly, as Wired points out, the Obscene Publications act was once used to try and ban a book that featured explicit sex; it seems woefully outdated to be of use in this situation.

pornfilter
Parents and schools have had access to porn filters for years. Surely better educated parents would be better than an opt-out scheme?

Despite the lack of real know-how surrounding the situation, Claire Lilly, child safety officer at the NPSCC, has come out in support of the report. Considering it leans heavily on the idea of “harmful,” pornography, when asked what that definition was, Lilley said: “I would say what we are talking about is hardcore, explicit content. A lot of adults are used to seeing soft porn in magazines, but this is hardcore explicit porn that might be harmful to children.”

While she doesn't seem to have a problem with pornography magazines – something that caused outrage in their own right back in the day – her wording suggests children are viewing and have been viewing magazines for years and it's not been a problem. Pornography in general is an adult medium, while some children will always find a way to access it, it's all illegal for them to view. Why should websites be singled out because their content “might be harmful,” when viewed by people the law already prohibits from doing so?

KitGuru Says: This is more moral policing with the use of another buzz-worthy topic, pornography, that sits right alongside terrorism as a way to make big changes without vocal opposition. Protecting children from things that they shouldn't see online or in the real world, is the responsibility of parents. It isn't the job of the government to censor content  because children might see it and it certainly isn't the job of private companies being forced to do so by politicians that don't know what they're talking about. 

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BT’s new porn filter to block proxies too https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/bts-new-porn-filter-to-block-proxies-too/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/bts-new-porn-filter-to-block-proxies-too/#comments Wed, 18 Dec 2013 11:59:32 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=168170 If you ever needed an incentive to vote with your wallet on censorship, now's the time to do it. BT has one of those filters that David Cameron loves to much and it's live now, so if you're an existing BT customer, your internet experience is set to be censored early next year unless you …

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If you ever needed an incentive to vote with your wallet on censorship, now's the time to do it. BT has one of those filters that David Cameron loves to much and it's live now, so if you're an existing BT customer, your internet experience is set to be censored early next year unless you opt out. More so than you might think to, as on top of making porn impossible to view, proxies will be blocked as well.

Existing customers will be receiving notices over the next few weeks that asks them if they want the filter switched on and new customers will be given the option to opt out when first setting up their account, but the filter will be on by default. The filters are designed to block pornography and websites that are deemed unsavoury by people like Huawei fan, Mr Cameron, but they will also block proxies, though not VPNs as once thought.

headsand

Clearly the best method to protect children

“[The filter] doesn't block VPN connections, but does prevent access to sites promoting the use of proxies and annonymisers [sic],” the BT spokesman said to The Register.

The filter will also be used to block sites like The Pirate Bay, which are easy enough to get around with proxies and VPNs, but if BT's filter makes those harder to access, will it be so easy?

KitGuru Says: Any BT customers noticed anything different since the filter went live? Have you been sent a notification? Let us know.

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Redtube users hit with copyright ransom demands https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/redtube-users-hit-with-copyright-ransom-demands/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/redtube-users-hit-with-copyright-ransom-demands/#comments Wed, 11 Dec 2013 12:38:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=167068 Redtube, one of the internet's most popular websites, acts as a Youtube like video sharing site for pornography, but despite its tantalising content, many users may be unwilling to revisit now that they've been hit by demands for compensation from a German legal firm representing a Swiss company called The Archive AG. top essay writing …

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Redtube, one of the internet's most popular websites, acts as a Youtube like video sharing site for pornography, but despite its tantalising content, many users may be unwilling to revisit now that they've been hit by demands for compensation from a German legal firm representing a Swiss company called The Archive AG.

This isn't a small number either, with over 10,000 letters said to have been sent out. The Archive charges these individuals with watching its copyright protected material on Red Tube without paying for it. To compensate, the company wants a total of 250 euros, only 15 of which is for compensation, whilst over 150 is for legal fees alongside almost 100 extra for damages and other costs. Some users have also been hit with multiple demands.

redtube
Redtube isn't far off breaking into the top 100 sites worldwide

This could have worrying repercussions if people start paying or even worse, if someone refused and was taken to court and lost, it could potentially be cited as an example of users being legally responsible for the content they watch on streaming sites. If that happened, get ready for studios to start going after people that watch copyright protected content on sites like Youtube too.

However there's more at stake here, as TorrentFreak points out, the question must be asked: how did The Archive get details on Red Tube users? The site itself denies having any involvement with the company or its legal representatives and points people in the direction of its privacy policy when asked. It could be hiding a court demand, but other theories have been suggested, such as malware or IP address grabbing adverts.

While how that happened remains to be figured out, there is at least some consolation for those targeted by the letters, since legally it seems they've done nothing wrong. Streaming content doesn't create an unlicensed copy (unless you could a couple of seconds of buffering) and the content found on Redtube isn't obviously illegal. So you're probably ok ignoring the letters from The Archive or refusing to comply with its wishes.

Probably.

KitGuru Says: This will be worth keeping an eye on, as if The Archive is able to get something out of this, there could be far reaching repercussions for a lot of video based websites, especially those that have user uploads which opens up whole new avenues for potential copyright infringement claims.

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Cindy Gallop: Talk about sex, don’t filter it https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/cindy-gallop-talk-about-sex-dont-filter-it/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/cindy-gallop-talk-about-sex-dont-filter-it/#respond Thu, 15 Aug 2013 10:31:58 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=147851 The David Cameron porn filters have been a bit of a hot topic here at Kitguru for the past few weeks and you've told us loud and clear, you're not happy with the idea of them. Fortunately, we're not alone in this regard, but not necessarily for the same reasons. Cindy Gallop, a TED Talk …

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The David Cameron porn filters have been a bit of a hot topic here at Kitguru for the past few weeks and you've told us loud and clear, you're not happy with the idea of them. Fortunately, we're not alone in this regard, but not necessarily for the same reasons. Cindy Gallop, a TED Talk alumna, has been speaking out about her own efforts to combat the problems with pornography, not by blocking it, but by simply being more open about sex.

A fan of hardcore pornography herself and a self described dater of younger Men, Gallop claimed in her 2009 TED talk, about how she felt porn had become the de facto instruction manual for young men and women on how to have sex. This was she said, a combination of both the increased ease in which porn was available, but also because of a continuing lack of educational information and open dialogue coming from both parents and schools. She argued that the best thing we can do is talk about sex, be open about our preferences and personal tastes and not allow a fantasy world – pornography – to dictate how we live our highly subjective, real-world sex lives.

With this in mind, it's no wonder she's spoken out in a new Wired column about why she thinks David Cameron's porn filters are a horrible idea.

It's not that there isn't an issue, she was keen to point out. There is one, but it's not the one he thinks: “The issue isn't porn, but the complete lack in our society of an open, healthy, honest, truthful dialogue around sex in the real world,” she said.

Separating the real from the fictional is important, she claimed, suggesting that in the same way we can enjoy and then discard the faux universes of summer blockbuster movies, we should do the same with porn. “As per our Make Love Not Porn tagline”, she said, “Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.”

“The social solution is “talk about it”. Instigate a seismic sociocultural shift away from “No sex please, we're British”, and open up the conversation — in schools, with sex education that acknowledges the reality of porn, and across the UK, with tools, forums and media that help parents talk openly to children and all of us talk openly to each other.”

makelovenotporn
The Make Love Not Porn campaign wants to highlight the differences between porn and reality and a healthier approach to the adult entertainment industry

However, it doesn't stop there. Gallop also wants to see the business sector play its part in renovating and reinvigorating the porn industry. The porn industry is scared, she said. It's crumbling and the business model is not working and everyone is just doing what everyone else is doing to try and stay afloat. The answer, according to Gallop, is to disrupt the industry by bringing in more female business leaders, help foster sex related startups and encourage a more balanced, radical thinking business model.

Gallop also targets Cameron's fascination with violent pornography in her piece, suggesting that it's got nothing to do with real violence, but more with fear about stagnation. “The growth of extreme violent porn is not the result of evil, twisted, malignant forces at work within the porn industry. Nor is it the result of an ever more corrupted and depraved user base. It's the result, prosaically, of a bunch of business people terrified they're no longer making money.”

And it's no wonder new models of business haven't come along. As she points out with her relatively healthy – by pornography standards – approach to sex, with its honest, reality based style of films and information with Make Love Not Porn, Gallop highlights how there are many traditional business solutions left untapped, because nobody wants to be seen to support “adult entertainment.”

“My team and I battle every day to build MakeLoveNotPorn.tv,” she said. “Because every piece of business infrastructure every other venture can take for granted — including Paypal, banks, mainstream video servers and email partners — we can't use: the small print always says, “No adult content.'”

Cindy Gallop doesn't want to stamp out porn, or make its users and participants feel like some sort of scummy, lower class perusers of filth, she wants to see Mr Cameron take a stand on acceptance and protectionism, doing so through innovation, instead of hiding it away like Britain's dirty secret.

KitGuru Says: I've done as best a hatchet job on the piece as I can to highlight what I feel was the most important bits, but I'd encourage anyone who's interested in this issue to give the full thing a read. It's a great piece and really highlights the way a lot of the world's problems should be approached: with openness and compassion. 

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Offensive Facebook material captured https://www.kitguru.net/channel/harrison/offensive-facebook-material-captured/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/harrison/offensive-facebook-material-captured/#respond Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:30:48 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=67769 Over the past few days, we have all read stories about horrible pages being delivered by the world's number one social network, Facebook. Imagine our horror when we were sent an example of some highly offensive material. Prepare yourself for the worst. Bloggers like Tom Loftus have been doing a great job of reporting on …

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Over the past few days, we have all read stories about horrible pages being delivered by the world's number one social network, Facebook. Imagine our horror when we were sent an example of some highly offensive material.

Prepare yourself for the worst.

Bloggers like Tom Loftus have been doing a great job of reporting on Facebook's issues.

Essentially, the Facebook firm seems to have been targeted with a vicious and co-ordinated attack, whereby horrible images etc are inserted into streams that appear as if they were being updated from friends and trusted associates' feeds.

Judging by the image we received earlier today, it's not only the friends' streams that are creating a problem.

This ‘invitation to click' appeared on one Facebook users page and they were, frankly, horrified.

Judge for yourselves.

Twisted logic: It's hard to imagine a more offensive invitation. Really.

KitGuru says: When will Mark Zuckerberg and colleagues be able to avert this kind of horrific attack and make Facebook safe again for all fans?

Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.

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Have you ever paid for porn online? Irish man blows €1,600 https://www.kitguru.net/channel/raymond-daily/have-you-ever-paid-for-porn-online-irish-man-blows-e1600/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/raymond-daily/have-you-ever-paid-for-porn-online-irish-man-blows-e1600/#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:25:44 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=51098 If we were being totally honest, I think almost everyone has viewed some porn online. While many would never admit it for sake of embarrassment it appears that some poor bloke has decided to come clean (no pun intended). According to corkstudentnews a student downloaded a ton of porn and was hit with a €1,600 …

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If we were being totally honest, I think almost everyone has viewed some porn online. While many would never admit it for sake of embarrassment it appears that some poor bloke has decided to come clean (no pun intended).

According to corkstudentnews a student downloaded a ton of porn and was hit with a €1,600 bill. The poor chap, spoke to the website under confidence and said “When I signed up, I was misinformed. They told me that unlimited internet was part of the deal. I asked the customer service agent [in store] repeatedly to make sure that this was the case, and was repeatedly told that it was. Then two months later I got a bill in the post telling me I owed them about €1,600.

“During my second month on the contract I moved to Cork. But our internet wasn’t installed for three weeks after we moved in, so I ended up using the net on my phone constantly.” We would assume with only one hand.

Estimations of the data use to rack up that bill, would have been over 80 gigabytes. When he complained and said he couldn't pay the full bill, he ended up settling with the phone network for just €400. Seems he got away with it, almost.

Kitguru says: Are you addicted to online porn?

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Women getting hooked on internet porn https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/slyvia/women-getting-hooked-on-internet-porn/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/slyvia/women-getting-hooked-on-internet-porn/#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:12:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=41464 According to reports, many women are getting hooked on internet porn as a way of dealing with anxiety. Quit Porn Addiction, one of the UK's main porn counselling services said that one in three clients are struggling with their own porn use. Founder and counsellor Jason Dean said that there were no women showing up …

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According to reports, many women are getting hooked on internet porn as a way of dealing with anxiety.

Quit Porn Addiction, one of the UK's main porn counselling services said that one in three clients are struggling with their own porn use.

Founder and counsellor Jason Dean said that there were no women showing up for help a few years ago. He said that he now gets inquiries from 70 women a year who are asking for help. Six out of 10 women say that they view internet porn, but only 17 percent class themselves as ‘addicted'.

Dean spoke to AP and said that they are following the same patterns as men and are becoming desensitized to increasingly hardcore porn. It gets to a point when women start acting more like men in their attitudes to relationships. The only differences between men and women addicts is that women feel more guilty about it.

Dean said that porn addiction is regarded as a ‘male problem' and it therefore not acceptable for women. Women feel that what they are doing is ‘wrong, bad, dirty and wrong' and they are often unable to get beyond that feeling.

KitGuru says: With the ease of accessing porn online, the problems are becoming more and more pronounced and people can spend hours a week viewing porn.

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Penthouse launch first European 3D porn channel https://www.kitguru.net/channel/carl/penthouse-launch-first-european-3d-porn-channel/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/carl/penthouse-launch-first-european-3d-porn-channel/#comments Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:44:35 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=35740 Penthouse have released the first 3D porn channel in a new ‘pan european' rollout. The channel is going to operate from 11pm to 5am daily and will include both soft core and hard core feeds. It is not known where Penthouse are getting the content from, but the 3D aspect will certainly appeal to aficionados …

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Penthouse have released the first 3D porn channel in a new ‘pan european' rollout. The channel is going to operate from 11pm to 5am daily and will include both soft core and hard core feeds.

It is not known where Penthouse are getting the content from, but the 3D aspect will certainly appeal to aficionados throughout Europe. They will have 30 hours of content which will be refreshed every month.

3D video has been having a tough time getting a hold in the UK and the introduction of 3D porn might kick start higher adoption figures, especially as dads can make the excuse it is for the sports coverage. It is worth remembering that adult material pushed the VHS platform 30 years ago, so we would assume it could have the same effect on 3D content.

Penthouse have launched the service today, which beats Hustler to the screens, with their own 3D channel expected later this month.

KitGuru says: Is 3D porn something you would be interested in? would you admit it?

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