Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. For reprint permission contact us.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
SALT LAKE CITY — The two leading War on Porn crusaders in the Utah legislature, Republican Rep. Susan Pulsipher and Senator Todd Weiler celebrated their state’s pioneering role in developing anti-porn legislation and hailed their age verification initiative as the source of later copycat legislation.
Pulsipher and Wailer made their remarks during interviews with Salt Lake City Weekly reporter Matt Pacenza for an article published over the weekend surveying the effects of the state’s long-term crusade against adult content online.
As XBIZ reported, SB 287 was one of several anti-porn measures promoted in Utah by the Republican Party, which controls all branches of the state’s government. SB 287 was similar to the Louisiana age verification bill that went into effect in January 2023.
Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden wrote to Weiler at the time, explaining that his bill was “so vague — and the requirements for compliance so contradictory” that she could not figure out how FSC members could comply.
Weiler and Pulsipher’s bill, the Salt Lake City Weekly explained, created civil liability for adult platforms, but “so far, no private Utah citizens have taken advantage of SB287 and filed a suit.”
Weiler told the paper that he had considered “a version of SB287 that would have given the attorney general a right to sue, but he decided it was less likely to pass the Legislature because it would have likely cost several million dollars in salaries for attorneys and support staff,” the Weekly reported.
“If I empowered the AG to go after them, it would have had a huge fiscal note,” Weiler added.
Pulsipher gushed about how much positive feedback she alleged to have received from constituents.
“[It was] probably the most ‘Thank Yous’ of any stance I’ve taken or any bill I’ve run,” she told the Weekly.
Yes, You Can Still Easily Find Porn in Utah’s Computers
The article’s author did a cursory search for adult content in Utah — one of the first states where Aylo made the decision to block access to Pornhub because of potential liability created by the vaguely written bill — visiting the 20 most-visited adult sites as determined by Similarweb “from a computer in Salt Lake City using a home Internet connection with no filters installed.”
“Of the top 20,” Pacenza wrote, “10 could be accessed with no age verification or by simply clicking a button that says ‘Yes, I’m 18,’ but offering no proof. None of these are complying with Utah’s law.”
“Sites that are overseas may not feel the need to comply with U.S. law,” FSC’s Mike Stabile explained to Pacenza. “That’s one of the key flaws of this legislative approach.”
“Unsurprisingly,” the report revealed, “the sites with no age verification have seen a boost in traffic in Utah: Seven of the ten are up, and three of those have seen their traffic double. It turns out that if you don’t make Utahns prove they’re 18, they’re more likely to check out your porn.”
Utah has often led other states in implementing anti-porn legislation and Weiler is known as a staunch Culture War proponent in the form of moralizing legislation, even within the state’s notably religiously conservative Republican Party.
In practice, the state has little separation between church, state, press, education and business, and the Mormon church — with which a majority of Utahns claim affiliation — has resisted scientific, evidence-based and parent-focused approaches to protecting children online.
Despite the national GOP’s laissez-faire philosophy regarding most business and regulatory issues, Utah’s Republican officeholders have relentlessly championed blanket mandates when it comes to default manufacturer-enabled filters or age verification systems.
The LDS Church has also promoted “porn filters” in Utah and nationwide, based on church elders’ theological belief that all porn — a term that for them encompasses all depictions of sexuality outside of the Mormon marriage — is a ploy by Satan to destroy Mormon households.
Legislation mandating porn filters, another of Weiler’s persistent crusading efforts, would also result in a financial boom for filter businesses, which would be able to bid for both public and private contracts.
A Forever War That Continues Benefitting the Crusaders
“Are we winning the war against pornography?” Weiler asked rhetorically in the Salt Lake City Weekly piece. “No. Will we ever win it? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what we can.”
The article points out that while SB 287 and other preachy efforts by Pulsipher and Weiler were “mocked by many progressive Utahns, who saw the same heavy-handed morality that limits our access to alcohol and lottery tickets,” Utah’s approach toward pornography “has spread quickly across the country.”
The article concludes by quoting a Utah academic who posits that “What we know works best for stopping the potential negative effects of this content is for parents to talk to their children openly.”
Immediately after that, however, the piece suggests to Utah parents that this “conversation” should be almost exclusively about how terrible porn is, and endorses the highly controversial, sensationalizing 2015 documentary “Hot Girls Wanted.”
Weiler, also unsurprisingly, agrees with those terms of engagement.
“We need to make it safe to talk about it,” Utah’s top anti-porn state senator told his local Weekly. “They’re going to search for porn. They’re going to find it. And so we need to talk about it.”
PHOENIX — Honey Vixen stars in the latest clip from AZ Pornstar.
“It is always the best of things for me to showcase a talent like Honey Vixen,” said Pornstar. “We don’t have enough stunning Asian performers in this business, let alone a woman who is opening the eyes of every fan and critic within the MILF genre. I believe that she and I created a piece of cinema worthy of the title of Arizona’s Best.”
The clip is streaming on AZPornstar.
Follow Honey Vixen on X.com.
LOS ANGELES — Max Fills stars in the new Ariana Starr ManyVids clip, “Summer Heat With Max Fills.”
“Getting to work with Max was amazing,” said Starr. “He is a man who loves what he does, and I think you need that in today’s industry. That is why I chose to release this scene at this moment.
“I am starting the second half of the year with my biggest productions with my biggest co-stars,” Starr added. “It is all so the fans will know the name Ariana Starr. That is my goal for this year, and I am looking forward to all the fun it will bring.”
The clip is streaming on ManyVids.
Follow Ariana Starr and Max Fills on X.com.
LOS ANGELES — Octavia Red stars in three new scenes, including her studio debut for Transfixed.
First, Red makes her Transfixed debut in “Swapping Panties,” alongside Emma Rose.
“I was so excited to make my Transfixed debut and felt honored to work with Emma,” said Red. “She was everything I thought she’d be, making my Transfixed debut incredible to film. I know my fans will enjoy it.”
Next, she stars with Bruce Venture in “Coming on to Coach — S2:E4,” for Nubiles.
Finally, she stars with Ryan Mclane in the new Penthouse Gold scene, “The Naughty Nudist Nympho.”
Follow Octavia Red on X.com.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Nika Venom has made her Nookies debut in “Wicked Wank — Nika Venom.”
The scene opens with Venom talking with her boyfriend on the phone. When he won’t give her the attention she craves, she turns to the neighbor.
“We’ve wanted to have her on the network for a long time, and she’s here,” said Nookies founder / CEO Jim. “The members can’t get enough, and her scene is a perfect 10. We have more scenes with Nika coming soon, so be on the lookout.”
The scene is streaming on Nookies.
Follow Nika Venom on X.com.
BRUSSELS — Aylo has filed an appeal with the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) challenging the EU’s Digital Services Act mandate to disclose the legal names of advertisers, including performers, in a publicly accessible database.
As XBIZ reported, the European Commission has designated Pornhub as a “very large online platform” (VLOP) and therefore subject to special regulations under the controversial Digital Services Act (DSA).
XVideos, Stripchat and XXNX are the other adult platforms also listed by the EC as VLOPs.
Under the VLOP designation, Pornhub “is required to publicly disclose a database of all its advertisers, including details about the ads and how they are targeted,” European tech news site Euractiv reported.
Aylo’s appeal requests relief from disclosing the legal names of “those who advertise on Pornhub, which includes sex workers and performers, because it will make their names publicly available and searchable in the repository,” a rep told Euractiv, stressing that the safety of the community is a priority for the company.
Aylo — like other companies, including mainstream ones such as Amazon — is also currently appealing the European Commission’s designation of Pornhub as a VLOP.
DUBLIN — The Senate of the Republic of Ireland — known by its Gaelic name Seanad Éireann — has endorsed an age verification bill introduced by a senator who said he was inspired by the U.S. state laws promoted by religious conservative anti-porn crusaders.
As XBIZ reported, Senator Rónán Mullen introduced his Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill earlier this month, which was backed by Ireland’s upper house after its second reading. The bill is now awaiting the committee stage.
The bill is co-sponsored by fellow Independent senators Michael McDowell, Sharon Keogan and Gerard Craughwell, and three Government senators: Fianna Fáil’s Erin McGreehan, Diarmuid Wilson and Aidan Davitt.
Mullen has claimed that his bill, which replicates the language of similar measures drafted by U.S. and U.K. anti-porn crusaders, is needed to address “widespread public concern about the proliferation of pornographic material freely available on the internet, and about the damage that this can do to children and their families.”
Mullen specifically cited U.S. states’ age verification laws and hailed as a victory the fact that their imprecise language, which has already had a chilling effect on free speech, has led adult companies like Pornhub to stop providing services in those states.
A British religious activist group celebrated the senate’s endorsement of a bill they claim addresses “the dangers of online pornography.”
According to a Christian Institute report, Irish senators offered “wide support for preventing under-18s from accessing pornography as senators highlighted its association with violence against and degradation of women.”
Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin raised issues with the proposals, but Mullen said the law was needed to “make our society safe for women to walk the streets and go about their daily lives realizing that the men around them see them not as objects but in a respectful, empathic way as equal partners in humanity.”
Main Image: Irish Senator Rónán Mullen
LOS ANGELES — Jessica Ryan is hosting an OnlyFans livestream on National Scotch Day, tomorrow at 4 p.m. (PDT).
“The best type of self care might be a good scotch and an orgasm or twenty,” Ryan said. “Celebrate my escape from Hollywood and the end of my move with your favorite scotch on National Scotch Day.
“In the wise words of David Daiches, ‘The proper drinking of Scotch whisky is more than indulgence: it is a toast to civilization, a tribute to the continuity of culture, a manifesto of man’s determination to use the resources of nature to refresh mind and body and enjoy to the full the senses with which he has been endowed.’” Ryan added, “And then fuck yourself — in the best sense of the phrase.”
Visit Jessica Ryan’s OnlyFans; follow her on X.com.
LONDON — U.K. pleasure brand Doxy has announced its new extended, two-year warranty on all products registered within 30 days of purchase.
“We acknowledge that there have been some isolated issues with Doxy products in recent years,” said Doxy’s Leigh Dedhar. “However, we are proud of our engineering department’s continuous efforts to improve our manufacturing process and quickly address any defects. While it’s impossible to eliminate all product defects, we understand the impact they can have on brand reputation. This is why we are introducing a two-year warranty, reflecting our confidence in the quality of our products.”
Dedhar elaborated on some of the company’s product updates.
“We have implemented several design improvements, such as a more robust charging housing to reduce the risk of pin insertion bending, upgraded the PCB, and enhanced the battery capacity and life span,” Dedhar continued. “These improvements have been in production for some time and will be carried over to the new Die Cast R. Additionally, we upgraded the drive spring to ensure a tighter fit and added an extra part to secure the spring in place, preventing it from rising, the collars have also seen an internal design change to allow for a tighter adhesion to the body.”
For more information, visit DoxyMassager.