View the full episode transcript.
Requiring internet users to verify their ages before accessing mature content may sound reasonable. Shouldn’t we be doing a better job protecting kids from online vulgarities? But free speech advocates say the push for age verification isn’t really about protecting children — and that bills like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would open the door to greater surveillance, censorship and control of what people can do online. Those same free speech advocates say the evidence lies in what happened to sex workers after the passage of the bills known as Allow States and Victims To Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) in 2018.
In this episode, Morgan is joined by writer, researcher and dominatrix Dr. Olivia Snow and Mashable associate editor Anna Iovine to explore the connections between porn, sex work and surveillance — and what age verification laws could mean for the future of the internet.
Guest:
- Dr. Olivia Snow, research fellow at UCLA’s Center on Resilience & Digital Justice
- Anna Iovine, associate editor of features at Mashable
Further Reading/Listening:
- Age verification is going to destroy the entire internet — Anna Iovine, Mashable
- Are You Ready to Be Surveilled Like A Sex Worker? — Dr. Olivia Snow, WIRED
- Sex Workers Have Been Banned From Airbnb for Years. Will You Be Next? — Dr. Olivia Snow, The Nation
- Discord delays age verification measures as it admits what it got ‘wrong’ — Austin Manchester, Polygon
- FOSTA-SESTA was supposed to thwart sex trafficking. Instead, it’s sparked a movement — Liz Tung, WHYY
- The Internet Loves Sex. Why Does it Hate Sex Workers? — Luna, The Swaddle
- When social media censorship gets it wrong: The struggle of breast cancer content creators — Savannah Kuchar, USA Today
- What would ethical age verification look like online? — Anna Iovine, Mashable
- Project 2025 Co-Author Caught Admitting Secret Conservative Plan to Ban Porn — Shawn Musgrave, The Intercept
- Going Viral vs. Going Dark: Why Extremism Trends and Abortion Content Gets Censored — Kenyatta Thomas, Electronic Frontier Foundation: Stop Censoring Abortion Campaign
- FCC finds no violations in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show at Levi’s Stadium — Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle
Want to give us feedback on the show? Shoot us an email at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org
Follow us on Instagram and TikTok
