pornography
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The UK could require facial scans or photo IDs to view online porn
Ofcom has published a draft of age-restriction guidelines for online services that host explicit sexual content in the UK. The not yet finalized recommendations are a step toward cementing enforcement for the recently passed Online Safety Act, which requires sites and apps to prevent children from easily accessing adult content.
Adult film star Riley Reid launches Clona.AI, a sexting chatbot platform
Adult film icon and media investor Riley Reid aims to bring the transformational capabilities of generative AI to adult entertainment with an online platform where users can chat with digital versions of adult content creators.
Recommended Reading: The phone-monitoring 'shameware' apps used by churches
Recommended Reading highlights the week's best writing on technology and more.
Utah considers bill that would install anti-porn filters on new phones
Utah's Republican governor has until March 25th to veto or sign a bill requiring phones and tablets sold in the state to automatically block pornography.
Porn cam network leaked sensitive data for thousands of models
Data leaks by their nature subject people to some kind of unnecessary risk, but this latest could be genuinely dangerous. Researchers at vpnMentor have discovered that a porn cam affiliate network, PussyCash, left nearly 20GB of models' extremely sensitive data exposed in an Amazon S3 bucket. The repository included not only 875,000 keys for different file types (such as photos and videos), but personal info for over 4,000 models worldwide that includes their names, ID photos, passport/ID numbers, release forms and driver's license images. Some of the data could be up to 20 years old, but other info is just weeks old -- there's a very real chance stalkers, extortionists and others could have used this to threaten many of the models.
Australia wants to verify porn users by scanning their faces
Australia has proposed another in a series of zany attempts to control the internet. This time, the government wants to do facial scans to confirm a user's age before they can watch porn or gamble online, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Then, the government would verify the user's identity using another proposed scheme called the "Face Verification Service."
Porn bots are now storming Twitter's trending topics
Instagram isn't the only social media app being invaded by porn bots. Now they're on Twitter, too. For the past few days, as I was scrolling through Twitter's trending section, I noticed a number of accounts showing similar behavior as the bots that have taken over Instagram comments. But, whereas on Instagram they're leaving messages like "We gonna ignore the fact that I've GOT A HUGE BOOTY?" or "DON'T LOOK at my STORY, if you don't want to M A S T U R B A T E !" on Twitter the spam also includes pictures of women in bikinis and a bunch of words relevant to topics currently trending on Twitter. And they're even more brazen in their attempts to lure in gullible readers, with messages like "I moan very much during sex, if this does not scare you, call me on whatsapp."
Instagram’s 'huge booty' problem keeps getting worse
There isn't a day when I don't come across comments from bots on Instagram. They're all over the place. But there's nothing they love more than to spam high-profile pages with millions of followers. Whether it's LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, ESPN or Ariana Grande, their posts are often the target of comments such as "We gonna ignore the fact that I've GOT A HUGE BOOTY?" or "DON'T LOOK at my STORY, if you don't want to M A S T U R B A T E !" Behind these, are fake accounts featuring pictures and videos of naked and half-naked women, whose primary goal is to get people to sign up for shady porn sites. This has become a serious problem for Instagram, one that seems to be getting worse by the day and that the company needs to get a handle on, before it gets more out of control.
India lifts ban on TikTok
An Indian state court moved to lift a nationwide ban on the popular short-form video app TikTok. A nearly week-long ban in India on the app is now reversed, lawyers involved in the case told Reuters on Wednesday. Google and Apple removed the app from its stores in India last week after a high court in Tamil Nadu called for its removal, saying it was exposing children to sexual predators and pornography. The ban in India was a major setback for TikTok, due to India being its largest user base with nearly 300 million users. ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, estimated in a court filing that the ban was losing the company nearly $500,000 a day.
Bots have invaded Instagram comments
The last thing I expected to find on Instagram was someone telling me not to look at their Story if I didn't want to masturbate. But that comment, which I can only assume was intended reverse psychology, wasn't just directed at me. It was left on a post from Sky Sports and, thanks to the thousands of likes garnered by the comment, it was the first thing the account's 2.7 million followers would see when they looked at the comments on that picture. There are similar comments all over Instagram, particularly on high-profile pages with millions of followers. And they have one thing in common: They're spam profiles with pictures and videos of naked and half-naked women, which were created to get you to look at their accounts and then have you sign up for shady pornographic sites.
Google blocks TikTok downloads in India over pornography concerns
Today, Google blocked TikTok downloads from its Google Play store in India, and Apple has been asked to do the same. The move comes after India's federal government sent a letter to the companies requesting that they abide by a state court's decision to ban the popular video app. India's concern is that TikTok encourages pornography and makes child users vulnerable to sexual predators, Reuters reports.
Tumblr will start blocking adult content on December 17th
Tumblr has announced that it will no longer allow adult content beginning December 17th. The site, which is owned by Engadget's parent company, says that content includes "photos, videos or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples and any content -- including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations -- that depicts sex acts." The move comes just after Tumblr's app was removed from the App Store, reportedly because of images of child sexual abuse that made their way onto the site.
Starbucks is fixing its public WiFi porn problem
Starbucks says it will stop people from viewing explicit imagery over its public WiFi hotspots inside stores following years of pressure from anti-pornography group, Enough is Enough. The organization -- which has already pressured McDonald's and Chick Fil-A to do the same -- forced Starbucks to take action after an online petition amassed over 26,000 signatures.
UK delays mandatory age verification on porn sites
Ever since the Digital Economy Act became UK law this time last year, we've known there would come a time when porn sites would be compelled to verify the age of British visitors to ensure they're only letting adults in. Not long after, the UK's digital minister set a deadline of April 2018, at which point porn sites would have to comply or face the consequences. We had assumed everything was on track, but the UK government has admitted we're nowhere near ready to police porn sites, and now it expects age verification won't be enforceable until the end of the year.
Pornhub's owner reveals its age verification tool for the UK
Pornhub owner Mindgeek has unveiled what might become the default gatekeeping tool for porn in the UK. AgeID will ask porn site visitors to create an encrypted login that verifies their age across any compatible site, saving them from having to prove they're 18 or older every time they want to view some racy material. The system will draw on third-party age verification companies, but Mindgeek promises that AgeID won't store any personal info -- it'll only keep "standard technical data" to prevent fraud as well as that protected login.
Pornhub says it will ban 'deepfake' AI-edited videos
Is the thought of AI-generated fake porn (aka "deepfakes") disturbing to you? You're not the only one. Pornhub has informed Motherboard that it will ban videos that use machine learning to superimpose faces on porn actors. The company forbids "any nonconsensual content," and this certainly qualifies -- more often than not, the face's owner didn't give permission. Pornhub put it on the same level as revenge porn.
Pornhub branches out into interactive sex toys
Before the sex robots take over, we still have time to get our rocks off with one another (and ourselves). And Pornhub is here to lend a hand, or an interactive sex toy, or three, to be precise. The largest pornography site on the net has been syncing its interactive adult movies with the Fleshlight Launch and Kiiroo's Onyx since June, and now it's adding its own, brand-spanking new haptic toys (the Virtual Rabbit, Virtual Blowbot Turbo Stroker, and Virtual Blowbot Stroker) to the list.
UK to enforce porn site age checks from April 2018
For years the UK government has toyed with the idea of introducing compulsory age checks for online pornography. In May, all of that talk finally came to a head with the Digital Economy Bill, which forces websites hosting adult content to snuff out under-18s. (Or at least try to, because there's always a way around such things.) Today, digital minister Matt Hancock announced that the new rule will come into effect next April. The exact implementation is still unclear, however. Forms that require your credit card details, or a check against the electoral roll have all been discussed, but we're still none the wiser about how it will actually work.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 28: Disconnection Notice
On this episode, managing editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O'Brien on to debate the value of reviving dead products and really dig deep on the value of unplugging. First they'll look at three things primed to come back from the dead: Verizon's unlimited data plans, nudity in Playboy and the Nokia 3310. Then, fresh from a weekend reading by a fireplace and drinking whiskey in the woods, Terrence talks about the importance of unplugging -- even if only for a few hours -- every week. We're more connected than ever and that's a good thing. But even too much of a good thing can be bad for you.
Porn doesn't need a XXX hologram
In December, the internet exploded with news of a XXX hologram. CamSoda, a small adult-cam site was bringing a holographic cam girl to the 2017 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. I had to see it for myself. Decades of work have gone into the pursuit of true, full-color video holograms as sophisticated as Princess Leia's cry for help in Star Wars. I didn't expect a porn conference to be the place where more than a half-century of scientific research would bear fruit. But two weeks after CES, I was on my way back to Las Vegas for porn's premier event. I was fully expecting an industry stuck in the past, but hoping for something more.
