IdeasThe Online Porn Free-for-All Is Coming to an EndThree decades into the internet era, the Supreme Court finally appears ready to uphold age-verification laws.By Marc NovicoffIllustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Carkhe / Getty; Atlas Studio / Getty.January 22, 2025 Listen1.0x0:0013:54Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (Noa) using AI narration. Listen to more stories on the Noa app.Updated at 12:40 p.m. ET on January 22, 2025In the pre-internet era, turning 18 in America conferred a very specific, if furtive, privilege: the right to walk into a store and buy an adult magazine. Technically, it still does, for those hypothetical teenagers who prefer to get their smut in print. For practical purposes, however, American children can access porn as soon as they can figure out how to navigate a web browser. Thats because, since the 1990s, America has had two sets of laws concerning underage access to pornography. In the physical world, the law generally requires young-looking customers to show ID proving theyre 18 before they can access adult materials. In the online world, the law has traditionally required, well, nothing. Under Supreme Court precedent established during the internets infancy, forcing websites to verify the age of their users is burdensome and ineffective, if not impossible, and thus incompatible with the First Amendment.That arrangement finally appears to be crumbling. Last week, the Court heard oral arguments in a case concerning the legality of Texass age-verification law, one of many such laws passed since 2022. This time around, the justices seemed inclined to erase the distinction between accessing porn online and in person.Explain to me why the barrier is different online than in a brick-and-mortar setting, Justice Amy Coney Barrett requested of the lawyer representing the porn-industry plaintiffs. Do you agree that, at least in theory, brick-and-mortar institutions shouldnt be treated differently than online? asked Justice Neil Gorsuch.If the Court indeed allows Texass law to stand, it will mark a turning point in the trajectory of internet regulation. As more and more of our life has moved online, the two-track legal system has produced an untenable situation. And lawmakers are fed up with it. Roughly 130 million people today live in states that have a law like Texass, all enacted in the past three years.Elizabeth Bruenig: Pornography shouldnt be so easy for kids to accessTechnology has come a long way since the Court first struck down age-verification requirements. Age verification services are now effective, easily used, and secure enough to be widely deployed. However the Court rules in this particular case, the era of the online pornography free-for-all seems to be coming to a close.Before the internet, limiting children and teens access to porn was pretty simple. Businesses werent allowed to sell porn to kids, and to ensure that they didnt, they were generally required to ask to see some ID.The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was supposed to establish a similar regime for the commercial internet, which only a few years into existence was already beginning to hint at its potential to supercharge the distribution of adult material. The law made it a crime to display in a manner available to a person under 18 years of age any sexual content that would be patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards.The Supreme Court unanimously struck down this section of the law in the 1997 case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, concluding that it amounted to a blanket restriction on speech. The laws biggest problem was its vague and overbroad definitions of prohibited material, but practical concerns about the difficulty of compliance also played a large role in the Supreme Courts ruling. It repeated the lower courts finding that existing technology did not include any effective method for a sender to prevent minors from obtaining access to its communications on the Internet without also denying access to adults. And in a concurring opinion, Justice Sandra Day OConnor wrote, Until gateway technology is available throughout cyberspace, and it is not in 1997, a speaker cannot be reasonably assured that the speech he displays will reach only adults because it is impossible to confine speech to an adult zone.After that defeat, Congress passed a new, narrower law designed to survive First Amendment scrutiny. The Child Online Protection Act of 1998 required websites to prevent minors from accessing prurient or pornographic material. That law, too, was struck down, in part because the Supreme Court opined that optional parental filters would solve the problem more effectively while restricting less speech. In the end, parental filters were never widely adopted, and within a few years, kids started getting their own devices, which were mostly out of parents reach.The Supreme Court decisions, and the legislative inaction that followed them, bifurcated the rules around kids access to porn. In the physical world, their sins were tightly controlledno strip clubs, no nudie mags, at least not without a fake ID. Online, they did as they pleased. According to a 2023 report, 73 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 have watched online porn. A young boy or girl can take out their smartphone, type a free porn sites URL into their browser, and be met with an endless array of quickly loading high-definition videos of adults having sex, much of it rough. Seeing an R-rated movie at a theater would require infinitely more work.The first crack in this regime emerged in 2022, when the Louisiana Republican state representative Laurie Schlegel first decided to act. Schlegel, a practicing sex-and-porn-addiction counselor, had been inspired to act after hearing the pop star Billie Eilish describe how porn had affected her as a child. I started watching porn when I was, like, 11, Eilish said on The Howard Stern Show. I think it really destroyed my brain, and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.Read: The age of AI child abuse is hereSchlegel was also inspired by the new technology available for online identity and age verification. In 2018, Louisiana had implemented a digital-ID-card app, called LA Wallet, that state residents could use instead of a physical ID. Schlegel realized that the same system could be used to share a users coarse agewhether they are older or younger than 18, and nothing elsewith a porn company. The gateway technology that OConnor noted didnt exist in 1997 was now a reality.Schlegels bill, which passed the State House 961 and the State Senate 340, required businesses that publish or distribute online porn to verify that their users are at least 18, using either a digital ID or another reasonable method. The law initially flew under the national medias radar. (I think there were only two [journalists] that called me in 2022 asking about the law, Schlegel told me.) But legislators in other states took notice, and by 2024, 18 more states had passed similar legislation. In states without a digital identification program like Louisianas, porn sites must pay third-party age-verification providers to use software to compare a users face with their ID photo, held up to the camera, or to use AI to determine if their face looks obviously older than 18. According to a report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the average margin of error for these commercial face-estimation services is about three years, meaning that those older than 21 are unlikely to ever need to show ID. In practice, this is much the same as a porn shop back in the day: Most people get through with a quick glance at their face, but people who look particularly young have to show ID.These state laws have some weaknesses. They apply only where at least one-third of total material on a website is pornographic. (At oral arguments, discussion of this fact prompted Justice Samuel Alito to quip, referring to porn sites, Is it like the old Playboy magazine? You have essays on there by the modern-day equivalent of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.?) The law is also toothless against websites that are hosted abroad, including the Czech porn giant XVideos, which hasnt complied at all with state age-verification rules, a fact that millions of teenagers in those states likely already know. Underage users can also evade the restrictions by employing virtual private networks to disguise their IP address.Still, even prohibitions that can be circumvented tend to screen many people away from a given activity, as the countrys recent experience with sports gambling and marijuana suggests in reverse. Three of the biggest porn sites in AmericaxHamster (which contracts an age-verification provider called Yoti), Stripchat (which uses Yoti or VerifyMy, users choice), and Chaturbate (which uses Incode)have chosen to comply with the state laws.The big holdout is Pornhub, the most popular porn site in America and one of the most viewed sites on the internet, with billions of monthly visits. It has stopped operating in all but one age-verification state. (The exception: Louisiana, thanks to its digital-ID program.) In an emailed statement, the company said that the laws have made the internet more dangerous for adults and children by failing to preserve user privacy and nudging them toward darker corners of the internet. A Pornhub spokesperson who goes by Ian (he did not provide a last name) told me that age-verification laws will lead children to seek out porn from even more troubling sources.Joining Pornhub and other porn distributors in opposition are free-speech groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. They argue that the age-verification laws are overinclusive, because they would restrict young peoples access even to a hypothetical website that was one-third porn, two-thirds non-porn. At the same time, they point out, the laws are underinclusive, because, thanks to the one-third rule, they leave kids free to access porn on general-interest platforms such as Reddit and X, which have quite a bit of it. And, the free-speech groups say, device-based content filters are still a better, less restrictive way to achieve the desired result.Much of the supposed burden on free speech centers on the notion that verifying ones age requires surrendering a great deal of privacy. That fear is understandable, given the long history of internet-based companies violating their stated privacy commitments. But a company such as Yoti is not analogous to, say, a social-media company. It isnt sucking up user data while offering a free product; its entire business model is performing age verification. Its survival depends on clientsnot only porn sites but also alcohol, gambling, and age-specific messaging sitestrusting that it isnt retaining or selling user data. Its privacy policy states that after it verifies your age with your ID, or estimates it with AI, it deletes any personal information it has received.From the May 2023 issue: The pornography paradoxFrom a data-protection perspective, all of our data, all the data we collect, is only used for the purpose it was collected fori.e., to complete an age checkand its immediately deleted after the age checks completed, Andy Lulham, the COO of VerifyMy, told me. This is standard across the industry. (One company that appears to trust the industrys assurances of privacy: Pornhub. Following a 2020 article by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times that drew attention to the sites hosting of rape videos, Pornhub began requiring online age and identity verification, conducted by Yoti, for every performer on the site. Ian, the Pornhub spokesperson, conceded to me that extending Yoti to its users would not raise privacy concerns.)Recent estimates suggest that most kids have watched porn by age 12. Societally, America long ago agreed that this wasnt acceptable. Now, finally, technology has caught up to the intuition that kids shouldnt have unfettered access to porn just because its on the internet.At oral arguments, the Supreme Court seemed inclined to allow Texass age-verification law to stand, although it might first send the case back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals with instructions to subject it to a higher standard of scrutiny than it originally did. Either way, some form of age-gating is likely here to stay.Were we to lose in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, weve got some new legislation ready to go, Iain Corby, the executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association, told me. Theyre fighting a rearguard action in the porn industry, but I dont think theyre going to be able to fight for long.Support for this project was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.Explore More TopicsSupreme Court of the United States

BKFCCredit: BKFCWhen the spotlight was brightest, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship delivered arguably its best show ever in Philadelphia on Saturday night.In the main event, Jeremy Stephens pulled the mild upset as he scored a second-round TKO win over hometown hero Eddie Alvarez as the latters corner stopped the fight between rounds.Stephens scored two knockdowns en route to the finish as he looked faster, better conditioned and more powerful than the former UFC champion.Stephens struggled in MMA at the highest levels of the sport, but he has seemingly found himself in BKFC.Hes now 3-0 with the promotion and he should be in a position to secure a strong payday in his next fight. Alvarez looks cooked.Hes been on the losing end of some brutal stoppages and at 41 years old, its likelyor at least it probably should bethe end of the road for him as a combat sports athlete.After the fight, Stephens and BKFC owner Conor McGregor faced off in the middle of the ring. McGregor urged BKFC owner David Feldman to make the date for a fight between the two former UFC fighters who have their own history.MORE FOR YOUIt was an interesting moment, but like every other combat sports contest McGregor is interested in doing, it will likely be blocked by the UFC while hes under contract. McGregor recently revealed the UFC blocked his attempt to face Logan Paul in an exhibition boxing match in India.Therefore, its unclear why they even bothered to pose. When Feldman mentioned it in the post-event presser, he did it in a way that suggests he isnt putting much stock in the concept.In any case, the event was amazing overall and quite honestly, with the energy from the crowd and the fights, they didnt need McGregors push for this one.As definitive as Stephens win over Alvarez was, it looked like a boring unanimous decision compared to some of the other finishes.Here is a look at all of the results and some highlights of the unbelievable knockouts from the event.Jeremy Stephens def. Eddie Alvarez via third-round TKO (5:00)Ben Rothwell def. Mick Terrill via first-round KO (0:36)All former UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell needed was 36 seconds to become the new BKFC heavyweight champion. Take a look at this vicious right cross that won him the title.Bec Rawlings def. Taylor Starling via unanimous decision (50-44 x2, 49-45)Pat Brady def. Zach Calmus via first-round TKO (0:53)John Garbarino def. Apostle Spencer via first-round KO (1:59)Garbarino ensured hed have a special evening. After scoring a first-round KO win over Apostle Spencer, Garbarino proposed to his girlfriend in the BKFC ring. She said yes.Kaine Tomlinson Jr. def. Pat Sullivan via first-round KO (0:37)You may never see a nastier KO than this one from Tomlinson Jr. It looked like rag-doll physics in a video game. The Uncrowneds Ariel Helwani had just one word:Steve Banks def. Joey Dawejko via third-round TKO (1:54)Brandon Meyer def. Zed Montanez via second-round KO (0:39)Travis Thompson def. Zachary Pannell via second-round KO (0:41)Phil Caracappa def. Noah Norman via disqualification (R4, 0:40)Cody Russell def. Logan Tucker via third-round KO (0:49)Itso Babulaidze def. Bryan McDowell via unanimous decision (48-42 x2, 47-43)

CREDIT: Carlos M. Saavedra (Photo by Carlos M. Saavedra /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set ... [+] Number: X154711 TK1 R1 F599 )Sports Illustrated via Getty ImagesThe Global Fight League held their inaugural draft on Friday night. We can now say definitively, there were fighters included who did not give their consent to be included in the leagues draft pool.Rashad Evans was drafted to the leagues Los Angeles team.However, Evans made it clear, he did not want to be included in the leagues draft. Evans and former UFC rival Quinton Rampage Jackson have agreed to a boxing match in April.LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 04: Rashad Evans arrives prior to the UFC 272 ceremonial weigh-in at UFC ... [+] T-Mobile Arena on March 04, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)Zuffa LLCRampage took to social media to question Evans inclusion in the league.I dont know how Rashad is on here when Im scheduled to beat his ass in April, Rampage posted on X.MORE FOR YOUEvans assured his rival that he would indeed be fighting him in the planned boxing match, and offered: Let me be clear! The only commitment I have is to lay yo ass out in April!! I was added to this without my consent!! You aint off the hook that easy!I reached out to Evans via text for more details.I never signed with them, Evans said. I expressed interest in fighting with them in the future. I told them I cant sign anything with them until after I fight Rampage in April.Its unclear where the mix-up happened, but the two sides are not on the same page.Once I saw them include me in the draft I was bothered, Evans added. Because I specifically told my manager to not allow this to happen. This organization is amateur. I just feel bad for guys who jumped to this promotion and left viable contracts with other promotions. This behavior told me all I need to know about this organization. They made promises they cant possibly keep.Most Takedowns in UFC Light Heavyweight HistoryCorey Anderson - 53Rashad Evans - 50Ryan Bader - 46Jon Jones - 42Ion Cutelaba - 37Glover Teixeira - 36Patrick Cummins - 35Tito Ortiz - 33Matt Hamill - 31Phil Davis - 31Many MMA fans badly want the Global Fight League to succeed, but every day a troubling bit of news comes out that creates serious doubt about its legitimacy.While there were a good number of production errors, the stream was oddly entertaining, and there was no shortage of big names who showed up to be a part of the stream. If this thing is going to succeed, theyre going to have to stop sabotaging themselves with egregious decisions that arent good for the leagues long-term success.There are so many head-scratching decisions. Why are they going with a season or team concept? Thats never worked in MMA. Why are they prematurely announcing fighters as part of their roster without written agreements?The blend of legends and prospects is an interesting mix, but fans have to be able to trust and believe in what the promotion is selling.With what were beginning to hear from fighters and others, we have to question the involvement of any fighters who havent acknowledged their plans to compete in the new league.

Bill Gates has long been a vocal steward of pandemic preparedness and vaccination.Gates told WSJ that he estimates a 10-15% chance of another pandemic in the next four years.In 2015, the billionaire warned that the world was "not ready" for a deadly outbreak.Bill Gates said the world is not prepared for another pandemic despite going through COVID-19.In a recent video interview with The Wall Street Journal's Editor in Chief Emma Tucker, the Microsoft cofounder expressed his concerns about the prospect of another pandemic."The chance of a natural pandemic in the next four years is somewhere between 10 and 15 percent," he said. "And it'd be nice to think we're actually we're more ready for that than we were last time. But so far we're not.""We're absolutely not," he added.Gates has long been an outspoken proponent of pandemic preparedness and vaccinations.In a 2015 Ted Talk, the billionaire warned that the world was "not ready" for a deadly outbreak.Seven years later, he authored "How to Prevent the Next Pandemic," drawing on the lessons learned fromCOVID-19. That year, the Gates Foundation also committed up to $125 million in the USto "help end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future pandemics."Gates told WSJ the world still isn't prepared for the next outbreak because "people, rather than having a consensus about what tools are missing, are mostly still replaying the various mistakes that were made.""So, I wouldn't say that we're as far along as you'd expect after trillions of dollars and millions of lives have been lost," he said.It's unclear how much the US will invest in pandemic preparedness under a second Trump administration.Federal health agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were recently advised to halt all communications to the public, including press releases, until further notice, NBC News reported.President Donald Trump also has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the HHS. Kennedy has been a vocal opponent of vaccine mandates and has promoted false or unproven claims about the impacts of vaccines.

09WOMEN Suwon Store / SUBTEXTSave this picture! Ki-Woong HongRetail InteriorsSuwon-si, South KoreaArchitects: SUBTEXTAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:80 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Ki-Woong HongMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. From Zero to Nine: Celebrating Diversity Gone are the days when beauty was dictated by narrow societal standards. Today, women are embracing individuality, and brands are stepping up to support this evolution. Andar's "Leggings for Everyone" campaign champions women of all ages who are pursuing their passion, while Isoi's "Show Your Bare Face" encourages women to celebrate their natural beauty without hiding behind makeup. Fenty Beauty made waves with 40 foundation shades designed for a broad spectrum of skin tones, moving beyond outdated Eurocentric norms. Meanwhile, Laka is redefining beauty in Korea with its gender-neutral approach, reminding us that color and self-expression are for everyone.Save this picture!The "body positivity" movement is breaking barriers of gender, size, and race, inspiring industries to celebrate diverse forms of beauty. In this spirit, 09WOMEN offers a space where women of all shapes and sizes can express themselves confidently and freely. Our inclusive range of sizes empowers every woman to celebrate her style, her way.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Originally, "09WOMEN" referred to group purchasing, but we've redefined it to represent freedom in choosing clothing, regardless of body type. We have given meaning to each digit from 0 to 9 by introducing ten distinct styles and identities for every woman to explore. This reinterpretation reflects our brand's identity, curating a space that highlights diverse styles and offers customers an intuitive and seamless shopping experience. We emphasize the graceful curves of the numbers, integrating these curves into the design of walls, fixtures, and signage.Save this picture!Save this picture!The choice of a neutral beige color, representing a broad spectrum of skin tones, creates a harmonious, borderless aesthetic. The space is thoughtfully divided: the front wall features product displays, while the back area houses functional zones such as the counter, fitting rooms, and innerwear section. Curved hangers that extend seamlessly from the walls provide an effortless way to categorize and display products. Number-shaped light installations guide customers' attention, making it easy to find items on both walls and hangers. We aim to create a space where everyone feels free to express their individuality, celebrate the beauty of diversity, and gain confidence in their unique identity.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Suwon-si, South KoreaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeSUBTEXTOfficePublished on January 26, 2025Cite: "09WOMEN Suwon Store / SUBTEXT" 25 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1026029/09women-suwon-store-subtext&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

The Fireworks Season of Infinity Nikki introduced a whimsically huge amount of new content for players to enjoy. This includes the addition of Fireworks Isle, countless new quests, plenty of new fashion ensembles, and even some new resource items. Some of those items can even be used to craft some spark-filled surprises.

If there's one thing that JRPGs have become known for over the years, it's cultivating a unique mix of different characters from all walks of life, as casts in this genre tend to be fairly diverse. While a majority of JRPGs feature a human of some kind as its lead, some games have featured protagonists that are a bit different, as several titles in the genre have stepped out in order to feature something more interesting.

IslaNode is an indie survival game with a unique crafting and building system. You are situated on a deserted island, and your goal is to escape it. You can construct physics-based buildings, and you need to make them sturdy, as natural disasters can cause your constructions to collapse. So far, I have created a demo that includes a tutorial level to explain the mechanics. It is already available on Steam.

Welcome to the first entry of my game development journey! Im diving headfirst into creating my first game, currently titled Forester (working title). This project officially started on October 29, 2024, and since then, Ive been grinding away at learning the basics of programming in my free time - clocking around 60 hours so far.To keep myself accountable and create awareness, Ive decided to start this devlog. My goal? To craft an intuitive roguelike RPG with procedura