Sex News: China crackdown, Prenda arrested, sex addiction and race, South Carolina’s awful porn blocking plan

• “People buying computers in South Carolina would be limited in their access to porn online under newly proposed legislation, which would require sellers to install digital blocking capabilities on computers and other devices that access the internet to prevent the viewing of obscene content. The proposal also would prohibit access to any online hub that facilities prostitution and would require manufacturers or sellers to block any websites that facilitate trafficking.”
  * Bill aimed at preventing online porn in South Carolina (WECT/Associated Press)

• “At 9:45 PM on Wednesday evening, a masked man entered the [sex toy] store and pointed a gun at the woman working behind the cash register. … The robber’s biggest mistake came when he tried to reach over the counter; Amy and a coworker began pelting him with sex toys, ultimately chasing him out of the store.”
  * Two Sex Shop Employees Fought Off A Robber By Pelting Him With Dildos (Distractify)

• “China has shut down or “dealt with” thousands of websites for sharing “harmful” erotic or obscene content since April, the state’s office for combating pornography and illegal publications announced. The office said 2,500 websites were prosecuted or shut down and more than 3 million “harmful” posts were deleted in eight months up to December during a drive to “purify” the internet in China and protect youth, the official Xinhua news agency reported.”
  * China takes action on thousands of websites for ‘harmful’, obscene content (Reuters)

• “Last month, the UK moved forward with the latest version of its ridiculous “Digital Economy Bill” which will put in place mandatory porn filtering at the ISP level — requiring service providers to block access to sites that don’t do an age verification check. … social media sites like Twitter and Facebook will be covered by this regulation.”
  * UK’s Ridiculous Internet Porn Crackdown Can Be Used To Kill Social Media Accounts (TechDirt)

• Incredible investigative work. “IndyStar previously reported that top officials at USA Gymnastics, one of the nation’s most prominent Olympic organizations, failed to alert police to many allegations of sexual abuse that occurred on their watch and stashed complaints in files that have been kept secret. But the problem is far worse. A nine-month investigation found that predatory coaches were allowed to move from gym to gym, undetected by a lax system of oversight, or dangerously passed on by USA Gymnastics-certified gyms. USA Gymnastics calls itself a leader in child safety.”
  * A 20-year toll: 368 gymnasts allege sexual exploitation (IndyStar)
  See also: The Ballerina Who Accused Her Instructor Of Sexual Assault (BuzzFeed)

• Prenda lawyers arrested, finally. “Two attorneys known for filing hundreds of porn copyright lawsuits and disability litigation has been indicted alongside a longtime partner in a multimillion-fraud and extortion conspiracy that counted as its victims hundreds of people nationwide and the federal court system itself. … Hansmeier and Steele collected about $6 million from hundreds of legal settlements in copyright-infringement lawsuits they had filed against people who allegedly downloaded copyrighted pornographic movies online”
  * Feds charge porn-troll lawyers in major fraud, extortion case in Minneapolis (StarTribune)
  See also, my background piece on Prenda’s main client: Hacker hater: Meet the star client of porn’s “most prolific” copyright lawyer (ZDNet)

• I want one of these! “Holo-Cam is a new technology that delivers 3D projections of cam models into your home by utilizing your smartphone or tablet and an inexpensive 3D projector. When you read the phrase “inexpensive 3D projector,” you probably imagine that means in the low hundreds of dollars, but Holo-Cam works with 3D holographic display pyramids, which can be found for as low as $1.50 online.”
  * This porn company wants to beam holographic camgirls into your home (Daily Dot)

• “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR — a newly acknowledged phenomenon, which leaves some devotees with what they call a “brain orgasm” — is the subject of adult e-tailer giant Adam & Eve’s latest research effort. … http://www.adameve.com/t-what-is-your-asmr-trigger.aspx
  is designed to help individuals assess whether they have ASMR triggers and how they can put them to good use.”
  * Adam & Eve Explores Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (XBIZ)

• “Data published (link is external)by Rory Reid of UCLA found that in a representative sample of people in sex addiction treatment, 92% were white. Around 40% of the US population is people of color, including Hispanics. It raises real questions as to why whites are disproportionately represented in sex addiction treatment.”
  * Sex Addiction’s Diversity Problem (Psychology Today)

• Powerful. “… I’ve never once been able to see myself as someone “sexually desirable,” though I know it to be true. This is due in large part to my history with childhood obesity, and the de-sexualization that comes hand-in-hand with the notion that fat people “just shouldn’t exist.””
  * Can We Let Fat People Own Their Sexuality Already? (Ravishly)

• “Last year, NYU Press published the fascinating book Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men … [It] explored various subcultures in which what could be called “straight homosexual sex” abounds — not just in the ones you’d expect, like the military and fraternities, but also biker gangs and conservative suburban neighborhoods — to better understand how the participants in these encounters experienced and explained their attractions, identities, and rendezvous.”
  * Why Straight Rural Men Have Gay ‘Bud-Sex’ With Each Other (New York Magazine)

• The former Feminist Porn Awards have now been rebranded to the Toronto International Porn Festival. “(TIPF) will feature a series of events at iconic Toronto venues. … Over the course of a weekend in late April 2017, the festival and awards show will celebrate and recognize erotic films that are inclusive and positive, representing a diversity of proclivities and desires in new and interesting ways.”
  * Toronto International Porn Festival (torontointernationalpornfestival.com)

• She basically documented her smuggling trip on Instagram. “A Canadian porn model [Isabelle “Izabel” Lagace] will plead guilty to smuggling $31million worth of cocaine into Australia on a cruise ship. … The young woman’s social media accounts showed her having the time of their life in the months leading up to their arrest.”
  * Canadian porn star will plead guilty to smuggling cocaine into Sydney (Daily Mail)

• “Christine Love wants to make sex in games more realistic, and that means making it funnier. … This is the opposite of the approach that you’d find in BioWare games and the like, wherein players unlock sex scenes and then watch what Love succinctly sums up as “a really awkward, 12-second animation.””
  * How Christine Love makes sex in games believable, engaging, and funny (Ars Technica)

Main post image: “The Kiss” by Jam Sutton, via Art Nau. I want that gorgeous print!