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Manga Site Blocks Adult Content, But Only For US and UK Users (404media.co) 123

Samantha Cole reports via 404 Media: A Japan-based online art platform is banning kink content for users based in the US and UK, as laws in these countries continue to tighten around sites that allow erotic content. Pixiv is an image gallery site where artists primarily share illustrations, manga, and novels. The site announced on April 22 that starting April 25, users whose account region is set to the US or UK will be subject to Pixiv's new terms of use, "Restrictions for Healthy Expression in Specific Countries and Regions."

The restrictions include several kinds of content that are illegal in the US, including sexualized depictions of minors and bestiality, as well as non-consensual depictions and deepfakes. But it also includes "content that appeals to the prurient interest, is patently offensive in light of community standards where you are located or where such content may be accessed or distributed, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, or otherwise violates any applicable obscenity laws, rules or regulations." This is an invocation of the Miller test, which determines non-constitutionally protected obscenity.
"I'd never say this a few years ago, but it's my personal fear that the next step is most major internet hosting services implementing these policies on an infrastructure level," said an artist who goes by kradeelav. "My colleagues are certainly planning for it by specifically looking for kink-friendly hosts, to actually making homebrew servers themselves in worst-case scenarios."

Manga Site Blocks Adult Content, But Only For US and UK Users

Comments Filter:
  • Oh well (Score:2, Insightful)

    I will survive.

    • Re:Oh well (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2024 @11:17PM (#64423126) Homepage Journal

      The Miller Test is a terrible standard of enforcement, as it puts juries in the impossible position of trying to determine what has "literary or artistic value" which is an entirely subjective call. Some people can claim that the human body is beautiful and depictions of it are automatically artistic. Others will claim that any nudity at all qualifies as "prurient" and utterly lacks artistic value. There is no way to be objective about this, as these are entirely a matter of opinion.

      The intent here is to filter out "patently offensive" cases. But that's still a problem, as different people have completely different ideas about what qualifies, making all enforcement arbitrary.

      The bit about "community standards" is a total trap too as any jury can contain people who live near one another but come from completely different religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, and as such have completely different ideas about what the standards of their community even are. Everyone's idea of what the "average person" considers offensive is entirely biased by their own ideas of what is offensive, and that will swing widely from person to person even within the same community.

      So, in short, it's crap, and it leads to uneven enforcement. It sends people to jail for content that is milder than content held by others who walk free, right from the same courtroom. I realize that we need some laws to prevent the distribution of harmful content, but we absolutely need something better than this.

      • Re:Oh well (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @03:23AM (#64423324)

        What exactly is harmful about drawn pictures (because last time I checked, the kind of anatomy depicted in animes or mangas is ... well, close to if not entirely impossible)? Who exactly is the victim?

      • And what defines 'Adult Content' may also vary depending on country.

      • I realize that we need some laws to prevent the distribution of harmful content, but we absolutely need something better than this.

        What would harmful content be? Sharing personal details about me at the wrong time to the wrong audience could be considered harmful to me, but those details are shared widely already...

        Sharing details about how to make a nerve toxin could be considered harmful...

        I dunno man. Defining harmful content seems pretty impossible. Just saying "fuck you" could be considered harmful by some. *shrug*

        Until you can clearly define the term 'harmful content', it is better to err on the side of caution. Sexual images are

  • Aww. Shucks.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Elon, is that you? As you've grown rounder around the waist, have you learned to recognize an orgy when you participate in one ?

    • by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @12:02AM (#64423170) Homepage

      What constitutes sexualized depictions of minors is rather subjective when it comes to works of fiction that do not involve abuse of actual children. It's worth mentioning that Romeo and Juliet were underage. [britannica.com]

      • by dryeo ( 100693 )

        Wasn't the age of consent 7 years old back then, and right to the beginning of the 20th century in places? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] shows variations, mostly around puberty, sometimes younger. Delaware for example had 7 years as the age of consent until 1895. Common law seems to have been around 12 years old for girls, 14 for boys.
        Teenagers didn't really exist until the 20th century and even childhood is fairly recent with kids starting work at as young as 5 years and marriage pretty common as soon

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Joshsmac ( 791309 )
      who cares. its just some drawings, meaning its not real. its not anyways business for crap that isn't harming anyone. should we ban call of duty cause people fake murder each other.
    • Ok, admit it, who let the door open? You know that all sorts of riffraff will come in, look, this time it was a priest.

    • by sinij ( 911942 )
      You failing to understand what the end goal is here. While they might be pretending to go after pedos and manga loli and furry content, the end goal is to use mandatory age checks as an excuse to ram through 'driver license' for internet.
    • by Z80a ( 971949 )

      If you create the tools, they will be used against you at some point.
      You can shoot russians with AK47's.

  • Ya, but (Score:2, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

    Manga Site Blocks Adult Content But Only For US and UK Users

    That'll only suck for people who like their porn back to front. :-)

  • Get a VPN. We've become a nation so hostile to free speech that we have to use VPNs to watch content that other, freer nations can get openly.

    • What makes you think "reasonable" VPNs will not implement similar policies, or that payment providers won't hit the "unreasonable" ones with restrictions?

    • Get a VPN. We've become a nation so hostile to free speech that we have to use VPNs to watch content that other, freer nations can get openly.

      I don't know if I'd go that far, but certainly a nation with a (smaller) segment of the population who really want to exert their beliefs over everyone and another (larger) segment that doesn't seem to care enough, collectively, to stop them -- at least, not yet.

    • You mean like the freer nations that pixilate pussies because nobody should be looking at them? Those nations?

    • by DewDude ( 537374 )

      Until they ban VPNs. I mean...they talked about it once. I believe in my state they didn't directly ban them...but there's language that means using one to skirt their laws can incur additional charges.

      • Plus all the talk of requiring the use of government ID systems like Id.me, which require personally identifiable tokens to be sent with your every request.

      • That's actually reasonable. Maybe the law you violate isn't, but the secondary law saying "using this to aid in violating a law" is.

        Using a VPN while accessing prohibited material is like wearing a disguise while robbing a bank. It shows you know you were committing a crime and put in extra effort to avoid being caught. It's something that undermines any claims of "I didn't know I was doing anything wrong".

        Whether that material should be prohibited in the first place is a different matter.

    • Get onionized.
  • I honestly expected foreign porn sites to just do the old Goatse disclaimer (which was something along the lines of "if you find this image offensive, don't look at it.") rather than blocking users from the US. I'm also not sure if the Japanese porn site operators are trying to make a political statement or if they're genuinely concerned that they'd be arrested if they entered the US on a business trip or vacation.

    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Problem seems to be with payment processors. They got utterly subverted by woke in the anglosphere, which led to anglo side of the companies demand global censorship rules.

      A lot of Japanese erotica and porn sites have been hit with it lately. Wokes utterly despise anime, because woke despises "male gaze", i.e. normal male sexuality. They actually write about it openly both in their academic papers and their DEI releases. It's why a lot of modern Western art features intentionally uglified models, even when

      • It's all because of "woke", huh? That's funny, I could have sworn the problem lay with the right-wing Christian theocrat-wannabes who are afraid of two dudes in bed together lest the viewer get an un-Godlike stiffie. Bondage and anything else other than man-on-top-woman-on-bottom-get-it-over-with-quick gets shut down because sex for pleasure is sinful.

        But if you want to keep making "woke" your bogeyman, go for it.

  • by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday April 24, 2024 @10:34PM (#64423060) Journal

    The restrictions include several kinds of content that are illegal in the US, including sexualized depictions of minors and bestiality

    Neither of those things are illegal in the United States; the First Amendment strongly protects fiction and art. The reason why Pixiv is geoblocking this stuff is not because of US law, but because of Visa and Mastercard.

    Rob

    • Would be great to have a nationalized ACH for this, so the First Amendment does apply. Would probably involve bringing back post office banking, so I'm not holding my breath. No, shitcoin isn't the answer. If it was, sex workers would be widely running it up the flagpole.
    • Re:Inaccurate (Score:5, Insightful)

      by znrt ( 2424692 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @12:44AM (#64423206)

      i'm afraid they might if any random judge thinks they do:

      The U.S. Supreme Court established the test that judges and juries use to determine whether matter is obscene in three major cases: Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24-25 (1973); Smith v. United States, 431 U.S. 291, 300-02, 309 (1977); and Pope v. Illinois, 481 U.S. 497, 500-01 (1987). The three-pronged Miller test is as follows:

      Whether the average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, finds that the matter, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interests (i.e., an erotic, lascivious, abnormal, unhealthy, degrading, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion);
      Whether the average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, finds that the matter depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way (i.e., ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, masturbation, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals, or sado-masochistic sexual abuse); and
      Whether a reasonable person finds that the matter, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
                          Any material that satisfies this three-pronged test may be found obscene.

                          Federal law prohibits the possession with intent to sell or distribute obscenity, to send, ship, or receive obscenity, to import obscenity, and to transport obscenity across state borders for purposes of distribution. ...

      https://www.justice.gov/crimin... [justice.gov]

      i had no idea. quite depressing but hilarious at the same time: note that an "average person" is enough to determine if anything is sex related, but it requires "a reasonable person" to determine if it has artistic value. i can't even ...

      it's a quite broad category, though, and doesn't even target child related porn specifically (which would still be problematic but sort of understandable, for an "average person", maybe even for a "reasonable person"). so, yeah, any u.s. judge that doesn't like your porn or your art may rule it is illegal for you to share it. that would be called censorship but don't worry, the u.s. is not china ...

    • the First Amendment strongly protects fiction and art

      Not that strongly. Child pornography, even drawn pornography featuring fictional children, is explicitly illegal and carries the same penalty as real porn featuring real children. Also, as the other poster said, anything "obscene" isn't protected. And this has come up in the past, and obscenity doesn't have to be visual. Look up what happened to Red Rose Stories, a website which used to sell purely fictional erotic stories. All text, no images. It's not the only example.

  • could other websites also do the same?
  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @12:10AM (#64423178)
    Is where theocratic dictatorships get their start. They don't stop at banning stupid pornos. They're openly out there telling you that they're not going to stop until you're either all on board with their brand of extremist Evangelical Christianity or six feet under.

    That's not an exaggeration. We've all seen them going on and on about how gay people cause hurricanes and earthquakes and we laughed it off. They're not joking they genuinely believe that.

    Christian nationalists believe in what I can only describe as a sin thermometer. They believe in a level of ambient sin that if it gets too high God smites everyone and everything in the vicinity.

    They know damn well they sin all the time and their attitude is they're doing everything they can to reduce the amount of sin they commit so they have to get out there and force you to stop sinning so the temperature of sin goes down enough that we don't all get smited. So they're going to make you obey and they're going to make you act the way they want you to act because in their crazy ass minds that's the only way to protect themselves.

    In other words you are a threat to them. At least inside their minds. And so they are not going to stop at dumb bullshit you can easily get around with your VPN if you are so inclined. They're going to go after those vpns and they're going to go after you. Because like I said in their minds you are an active threat
    • ... banning stupid pornos ...

      Religion has little to do with it: For nearly 3 decades, all images of undressed children have been forbidden, because that enables pedophiles. For nearly 2 decades, many images of breasts have been forbidden, because that enables stalkers and pedophiles. "Pedophile" is a large category in the USA, and now the UK. That has changed what is shown on Television for a long time: In short, entire countries have disappeared from the news. (The Vietnam-war napalm-burnt girl was included for a brief time.) T

    • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @03:29AM (#64423334)

      It's the people who constantly think of the children who are most likely the real pedos.

    • Sad but true. These people are stuck in the dark ages and want everybody else to get stuck there as well, preferably by force.

    • Are these Christian nationalists in the room with us now?
    • by monkeyxpress ( 4016725 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @08:25AM (#64423688)

      Evangelicalism has become more extreme because it does not need to appeal to moderate christians anymore - and that's largely because moderate christians are a shrinking group.

      When I was growing up in the west, most people would consider themselves cultural christians. They would not question that 'god made us' or that there was a heaven/hell. It was what they were told was the answer to meaning of life questions. The evangelical movement mostly grew by enticing these 'dead christians' into their ranks. I mean, 30 years ago, people who talked about evolution were deemed dangerous.

      But moderate christianity is in massive decline. People are comfortable saying they are agnostics/atheists now and don't feel the cultural pressure to attend church or identify as christians. This makes the job of the evangelical much harder. Look at people like Ray Comfort - all of his bizzario 'arguments' rely on the person he is arguing with having an a priori acceptance of basic biblical theology. When you listen to him now you're like WTF is that guy on, but once you realise that in his heyday he was targeting moderate christians, why he became such a big figure makes sense.

      Essentially, now that they don't need to appeal to moderates anymore they have just gone total batshit crazy, and will likely become even more so as cultural christianity continues its decline.

      • It's a vicious cycle I have seen family members and their churches go down. When reasonable people start leaving the church, those remaining are more radical. With the religious radicalization, there is also a heavy injection of politics.

        I've seen churches that avoided politics as a matter of course go full Q-Anon within a few years. Just as social media uptake ripped through the elderly population. With the congregation absorbing that stuff Monday through Saturday, they expect to hear about it on Sunday. I

    • I believe the people elected the current batch of Christian nationalists. If you don't like it, don't vote that way.
  • It's already pixelated in the naughty areas because of their own laws.

  • Surpised by the UK (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Teun ( 17872 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @02:48AM (#64423294)
    I am surprised to see the UK mentioned.
    In the US you can expect anything, like don't say toilet or WC but call it restroom or powder room :)
    Someone mentioned here this is because the large credit card companies are behind it but then, they also have significant business outside the UK and US.
    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @06:44AM (#64423548)

      I'm not at all surprised. The UK is far more conservative than the US. You're talking about a country which in theory has laws against publishing any BDSM content regardless if the people in it are consenting adults or not. In the US beastiality was shutdown by credit card companies. In the UK the depiction of it is illegal. In fact so is the depiction (real or not) of many things considered obscene. Breathcontrol during porn? Verboten! The law bans the depiction of any act that may result in injury. CNC porn? Verboten! You can't even role play the helpless damsel on film.

      The funny part is... the Crown Prosecutor has officially stated they will not prosecute adults for filming / publishing consensual acts under this law, but the law still exists none the less.

      • "CNC porn? Verboten!"

        Well, yeah. I'd think porn involving an automatic router would be pretty painful, not to mention dangerous.

      • by mjwx ( 966435 )

        I'm not at all surprised. The UK is far more conservative than the US. You're talking about a country which in theory has laws against publishing any BDSM content regardless if the people in it are consenting adults or not. In the US beastiality was shutdown by credit card companies. In the UK the depiction of it is illegal. In fact so is the depiction (real or not) of many things considered obscene. Breathcontrol during porn? Verboten! The law bans the depiction of any act that may result in injury. CNC porn? Verboten! You can't even role play the helpless damsel on film.

        The funny part is... the Crown Prosecutor has officially stated they will not prosecute adults for filming / publishing consensual acts under this law, but the law still exists none the less.

        A law that isn't enforced isn't really a law. As far as Puritanism goes, the UK is nowhere near as bad as the US, we aren't even as bad as some of our European neighbours, Germany has a hard-on for blocking porn sites where as the UK just politely asks you don't let any minors on but doesn't really check after that. Bit like the TV license thing.

        The UK was picked as it's a big target. I mean Australia has far more restrictive laws that do get enforced, but it's too small and far away to be noticed by any

    • don't say toilet or WC but call it restroom or powder room :)

      I wouldn't chalk that up (today) to anything puritanical. It's just regional. There's nothing more salacious or even accurate about "water closet" over "bathroom". And in North America "toilet" refers specifically to the object into which one craps, so we do use that word, just not for the room that contains that object. Sure, maybe a couple hundred years ago some conservative folk in funny hats pushed for linguistic change but today nobody on this continent gives a shit.

    • In the US you can expect anything, like don't say toilet or WC but call it restroom or powder room :)

      Outside of the Americans who watch British shows and architects, most of us would have no idea what a water closet is, let alone a WC. And I have never heard "powder room" used outside of movies and TV unless it was somebody feigning haute couture as a joke. Bathroom and restroom are the common terms here. Toilet is the thing you sit on, when you go to the bathroom.

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Thursday April 25, 2024 @03:28AM (#64423332)
    But, but, but... how are UK & US school children supposed to decide whether they prefer Hentai tentacle or furry porn?
    • They'll just have to grow up to be men who can have sex [everydayhealth.com] with their partners.
      • wHoOsH!!

        P.S. Why the fixation on boys? Don't girls explore sexual fetishes too?
        • Men view porn much more frequently [byu.edu] than women.

          You might want to look into this [amazon.com].

          • Did you just cite a study about people's sexual behaviour from a private Mormon university?!
            • "It's magic underpants all the way down!!!"
            • Nice response [wikipedia.org].

              I did a quick search and pulled a top result, because this is well understood science.

              Prefer this [nih.gov]?

              Young men and women differ in their porn use habits.1 Men start using porn at an earlier age than women (Sinkovi, tulhofer, & Boi, 2013), watch porn more often than women (Petersen & Hyde, 2010), and prefer hardcore over softcore videos (Hald, 2006). In this research, we further investigated porn-related gender differences by examining whether young men and women also differ in the relation between porn use and sexual performance.

              You can follow those citation links, if you like. Or try to find some data that refutes this. Or keep your head buried.

              Here is the result of that study, also very interesting and pertinent:

              The results revealed a twofold phenomenon. Among men, a higher frequency of porn use (wave 1) and increased porn use over time (waves 1–3) were associated with lower levels of sexual self-competence, impaired sexual functioning, and decreased partner-reported sexual satisfaction. In contrast, among women, higher and increasing frequencies of porn use were associated with higher levels of sexual self-competence, improved sexual functioning, and enhanced partner-reported sexual satisfaction (for some aspects).

              • But... how is any of this relevant?!

                P.S. I can wholeheartedly confirm that more than a small percentage of women have some pretty outrageous sexual fantasies, fetishes, etc.. I guess they only share them with people they feel they can trust.
                • You're countering scientific articles with thousands of participants with anecdotal evidence? Nice again. Here's that link [amazon.com].
                  • Since you seem so interested in the subject, here's a book you might find enlightening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
                    • BTW, a friend once told me that she thought the most extreme sexual perversion was abstinence. Think about it. She's got a point, right?
                    • That actually looks interesting, thank you. I just might give it a shot.
                    • No, she doesn't have a point, that's retarded. Abstinence is either repression and avoidance or a transcendence of our animal condition.

                      I could see withholding sex as a perversion, leading people on, getting a sense of power from it, but that's still indulging in sexual relationships.

                    • She does have a point. You just don't like it.
                    • It's more about semantics. I just looked up sexual perversion, and found this, which makes her point:

                      Sexual perversity has traditionally been defined in terms of violating externally imposed criteria for natural or normal sex. The theory proposed here views sexual desires in terms of their own internal structure, such that perverse desires are those which are self-defeating because they are contradictory.

                      But this one makes my point:

                      Sexual perversion—any sexual practice that is regarded by a community or culture as an abnormal means of achieving orgasm or sexual arousal.

                      The 1st says just violating norms counts, but the 2nd says it must actually be violating norms in a sexual context. Both are valid.

                    • Yeah, and? You gotta pick a more relevant hill to die on.
                    • This isn't a hill I need to die on.
                      • You asked why I was concerned with men's use of porn, but not women's, andI explained it's because men are much bigger consumers of porn, and its effects are much more negative for men.
                      • Then you said, nonsequitorially, that women had fantasies, too. No one's denying that, and I'm happy they do.
                      • Then you said you had a friend who thought abstinence was the biggest sexual perversion, and I responded that completely depends on how you define sexual perversion. I prefer the
                    • You know, you really ought to stop obsessing about this. What whichever society you live in deems to be fetishes, perversions, sexual deviations, transgressions, etc., are all perfectly normal, natural features of being a human being. As long as we're not injuring anyone or breaking any laws (except in the case of Texas where dildos are illegal, seriously?) what's the problem?

                      What's unhealthy is taboos, stigmatisation, repression, etc.. Live & let live.
                    • Not obsessed, this is just a conversation.

                      Porn use is unhealthy for men, shown in the study I linked above. I don't think it should be censored, but it should be recognized.

                      If you don't care about men, maybe you'll have some compassion for their families and partners.

                    • C'mon, come clean. Tell us all. You know that deep down, you really want to so why not get it off your chest? I assure you you'll find it liberating. Which is it that you prefer, tentacle or furry?
                    • Neither.

                      By the way, this is abstinence [tiktok.com], for men.

                    • No worries. No pressure. Everyone's entitled to enjoy their sexual preferences in privacy & without the judgement of others. That includes not preaching abstinence or trying stigmatise others' preferences.
                    • Your mentioning stimatization brings up an interesting question—why does men's sexual performance suffer after viewing porn? Is it because it's stigmatized and that makes them feel guilty/embarrassed? Or because the wide variety and crazy standards (fake tits, blemish correction, bleached assholes, etc.) they see make them not appreciate real women? I lean towards the 2nd. It's funny that a lot of feminists are now celebrating porn, when many used to see it as degrading exploitation.

                      That includes not preaching abstinence or trying stigmatise others' preferences.

                      Let people stand u

                    • Well, sex can be fulfilling & liberating or stigmatising & depressing. I guess it depends on the person's & the people around them's perceptions & reactions. Glass half empy/full kind of thing. One thing I do know is that those who celebrate & embrace their sexuality typically have a better time than those who don't. Gotta think of a really funny safe word... mmm...
                    • One thing I do know is that those who celebrate & embrace their sexuality typically have a better time than those who don't.

                      Couterpoint: Buddhist monks are celibate and some of the happiest people on the planet.

                    • "Alcohol, tobacco, & the like are all things that saints must avoid, but then sainthood is something that all human beings should avoid." - Rudyard Kipling
                    • Choose to be optimisitc, it feels better. - Dalai Lama
                    • You think monks are happy? Well, maybe they are. Have you ever wondered why people become monks in the first place? Religious devotees scare me. Every Easter Week here, I see religious devotees form orderly processions in the streets where they literally competitively torture themselves in front of large crowds. If that ain't exhibitionist sadomasochism, I don't know what is. And there's the monks who spend most of their days drunk... Then there's the priests & nuns... Don't get me started on the priest
                    • You're conflating different things, something I mentioned earlier- there's a big difference between religion and spirituality. Religion can often lead to spirituality, but it's just one path, and it often doesn't go there.

                      Mathieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk, is often called the world's happiest man, and that's because he took part in a multi-year brain study [tbsnews.net]. He has a book on happiness [amazon.com]. Early on in this book, he talks about Tibetan monks who are tortured by the Chinese for years, who have close friends killed

                    • Sainthood is not something that I aspire to.

"Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch." -- Robert Orben

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