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South Carolina Bill Would Make All Computers Come With a Porn Blocker


Fossa
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Well, as I suspected, efforts similar to those in the UK are going to start slowly seeping their way into the US...after all an official position of the Republican Party Platform states that porn is a 'public health hazard'. Never-mind unemployment, lack of medical care, soaring suicide rates and the lack of a safety net for the un and underemployed...

Granted, SC is a very, very conservative, Bible-thumping state, but behold! A porn tax! Fees! Regulations! The government knowing more and more about you!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/12/20/south_carolina_bill_would_make_all_computers_come_with_a_porn_blocker.html

http://www.vocativ.com/385634/south-carolina-bill-block-porn-pay/

 

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We are exporting our politics to you. :V

Anyway, I think that relying on filters to protect children from sexual content isn't responsible parenting, because filters are not always as effective as they are touted to be. Furthermore filters can block suitable content erroneously, meaning that anybody who doesn't want to discover that their computer has blocked non-pornographic content that they need to access is going to have to pay the 'pervert tax'.

Since the blocks are required to prevent access to any site that could be used to sell sexual services, I guess that means facebook and twitter are gone?

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At least in comparison to the UK law, this one is fairly benign. It's basically extortionist bloatware; the purchaser pays a one-time fee to have the blockers removed after verifing they're over 18. No doubt it will be trivial to extricate by anyone with even basic technical skills.

Nevermind that the courts would likely strike it down (hooray for flushing money down the toilet paying lawyers) the manufacturers are going to have a cow. Implementation will be a nightmare and ineffectual.

However, the fee paid does go to the State Attorney General to fight human trafficking (still a very big issue) so at least something positive might come of it.

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Alright so who wants to place bets on how fast it'll take for someone to find out how to remove it?

Personally that'd be cool to see how they (try) and implement it.

But won't building your own computer just completely circumvent it?

Guess you're screwed with a laptop if it's built in SC though.

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2 hours ago, Fossa-Boy said:

"public health hazard"

Why are people complaining that sex is hazardous to one's health? Its essentially the opposite. People trying to force people to suppress their sex drive and increase their sense of guilt toward sex is extremely unhealthy

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58 minutes ago, DrGravitas said:

However, the fee paid does go to the State Attorney General to fight human trafficking (still a very big issue) so at least something positive might come of it.

Not so sure about it.

The task force assigned to the issue has wasted all of the money it has gotten on the issue looking into the issue and concluding it needs more money to look into the issue. This is apparently their solution to the need to look into the issue, but it comes from a conclusion about human trafficking the task force has been unable to make because they need more money to be able to look into the issue. Their defense of that conclusion in all of their reports exists solely in a webpage that no longer exists because the organization that created it found it was misleading.

Outside of the task force, SC feels that sex trafficking is the result of the U.S.'s economic system and a demand for trafficking, and their solution is to post flyers with a hotline and to refer victims to Lutheran Services Carolinas.

I don't think that money will help seeing how awful the efforts already are, and if it does, it will result in foreign and underage victims being charged with criminal and civil offenses because the federal government does that for some reason.

God bless the U.S. of A.

art-american-flags-united-states-of-amer

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The only possible way I could see this flying is through private enforcement in small-scale institutions, like colleges.
It's never going to for something as large as a state. We like our morals, but we like our money and our freedums more, and the porn market is a goddamn huge one.

If it does pass beyond the crazy ramblings of some old religious nutjob in office (which are nothing new for bills to be), I'll be pretty surprised.

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45 minutes ago, Conker said:

I don't see how this would be enforceable at all. What happens when you buy a PC from out of state, or you build one and get your parts from fuckall who knows where?

Technically, the law they've written states that it's for computers or internet devices (probably meaning smartphones) manufactured for sale in the state. So it doesn't apply to either case of out-of-state purchases nor self-built.

Certainly, it'll be impossible to prevent people from removing the filters without paying the fee, but I'm guessing they're banking on enough folks just having the people from the place they buy it from do it and paying the fee. The only enforcement they'll really be able to do is in making sure the companies selling the computers are complying. It'd be laughably ineffectual at doing anything to curb porn but it'll probably be effective enough at extracting a little bit of cash from the computer sale. Seems like a don't-call-it-a-tax tax to me.

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8 hours ago, Saxon said:

Boobs; suitable for babies, not suitable for children, sort of suitable for adults.

Breasts are like lego. Designed for children, played with by men.

...also there's this little round lump on the top you can plug a mini figure onto.

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20 hours ago, Feelwell the Rabbit said:

Alright so who wants to place bets on how fast it'll take for someone to find out how to remove it?

Personally that'd be cool to see how they (try) and implement it.

But won't building your own computer just completely circumvent it?

Guess you're screwed with a laptop if it's built in SC though.

Someone'll find a bypass before it even comes out, I bet.

I mean it wouldn't be that hard, you can make a bootable OS on a flash drive and have it completely ignore the one on the system and not even start any of its programs...

11 hours ago, Faust said:

Breasts are like lego. Designed for children, played with by men.

...also there's this little round lump on the top you can plug a mini figure onto.

UNDERRATED POST. Milk/10 I need to get a new drink now and clean up my nose.

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36 minutes ago, LadyRadarEars said:

Someone'll find a bypass before it even comes out, I bet.

I mean it wouldn't be that hard, you can make a bootable OS on a flash drive and have it completely ignore the one on the system and not even start any of its programs...

I don't reckon the old fart who wrote this bill is awfully technologically literate, nor understanding of the technology

Because anyone who is can easily realise this idea is laughably awful.

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I bet they're banking on this being like a bathroom bill for computers: it pleases the moral crusaders and "justifies" authoritarian power-grabs, regardless of its ineffectiveness or extent of collateral damage.

However, the danger every government who's ever done anything like this overlooked is the security of whatever filter-nanny they mandate.  Or rather, the complete lack thereof.  Any such program that's even half decently effective will introduce a wealth of Internet-exploitable security holes.

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