https://thebaffler.com/latest/papers-please-mcgrady
"THE ASSUMPTION THAT the adult entertainment industry is “recession-proof” is
looking more dubious by the day. Though the United States and much of the world
are not technically in a recession, the affordability crisis tied to high
inflation and stagnant wages has left people feeling strained. For digital sex
workers, these issues are compounded. Nearly 50 percent of the U.S. population
now lives in states with age verification laws that target adult content on the
internet. These laws restrict freedom of expression for adult consumers, but
they are proving even more costly for the people who actually work in the
online adult entertainment industry.
Over 45 percent of sex workers have seen a noticeable drop in their income,
according to a 2025 survey by the adult industry market intelligence firm SWR
Data. Nearly 98 percent of creators who experienced a decrease attribute at
least some of this to the “war on porn,” which includes age verification laws.
The average income for an online sex worker, according to SWR, clocks in around
$58,700 annually—but 38 percent of respondents report making only between
$10,000 and $40,000 annually. More than half of these creators have income from
outside of the adult industry, while about 35 percent are solely dependent on
adult work as a means of economic survival. So when it comes to age
verification laws, clearly much more is at stake than the freedom of the
consumer.
Attempts to regulate online porn have long collided with free expression,
especially since the Supreme Court dismantled key parts of the
Communications
Decency Act of 1996. The current wave began in Louisiana, where Republican
Representative Laurie Schlegel sponsored the first state age verification law
in 2022. When it took effect in 2023, users had to prove they were eighteen to
access adult sites. Pornhub responded with ID checks, which led to traffic
plummeting 80 percent; meanwhile, searches for virtual private networks (VPNs)
that would enable users to circumvent age verification spiked. Supporters of
the law claimed a win. Critics saw censorship—clear restrictions on access that
directly undercut a legal industry and the workers who rely on it.
This model soon became a national strategy as religious conservatives and
Christian nationalist groups aligned with the Republican Party to advance age
verification as part of a broader cultural agenda. The Heritage Foundation’s
Project 2025 called for dismissing long-standing First Amendment precedent to
ban what it defines as pornography. Organizations such as the American
Principles Project, American Family Association, Center for Renewing America,
and Ethics and Public Policy Center helped move these policies into mainstream
lawmaking. Russell Vought of the Center for Renewing America, and now President
Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, describes the strategy
as a “doing it from the back door”: making pornography sites legally liable if
minors use them could lead companies to stop doing business altogether in
certain states, so the thinking goes. Now covering roughly half the country,
these laws operate less as neutral safeguards and more as content
restrictions—shrinking a legal industry and raising serious constitutional and
labor concerns for digital sex workers."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Cybersecurity: April 7, 2026
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-7-154983896
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
