I'm an aspiring artist who unfortunately has bad ADHD and OCD tendencies >> My blog is SFW. I'm an adult (26) if I interact with blogs that are strictly 18+
To anyone who views this post and actually cares for me I'm fine and alive. Other than being slow, lazy and awkward. I haven't abandoned my blog nor do I plan to
as the web in the United States becomes increasingly divided by a patchwork of mutually-conflicting age-verification laws, surely at some point we’re going to have to address the fact that it’s technologically impossible to know where anyone on the internet actually lives, right?
right?
oh, sorry. let me explain. see, now that we’re legally demanding that websites hosting adult content collect the IDs of users who live in particular states, you may have made the reasonable assumption that it is (for example) possible to do that.
this is a classic error.
maybe an analogy would help. if i were to call you on the phone, your phone would probably display my caller ID. it would show you my number, and below that number would be the text “Orlando, FL”. you, seeing this, would make the reasonable assumption that i am calling you from Orlando, FL.
but in fact I’m calling you from Portland, OR. i don’t live in Orlando: actually, I’ve never lived in Orlando in my entire life. i once lived kind of sorta in the general vicinity of Orlando, which is how I got this number, but that’s not where I live now and it’s not where I’m calling from. your phone just looked up my phone’s area code, and used that to guess where I’m calling from.
IP addresses are to the internet as phone numbers are to the phone network. if you run a website, the only piece of information you can know for certain about any user who visits your website is their IP address—their “caller ID”, so to speak. that IP address is the only bit of information you can use to determine where they live.
but if guessing a caller’s location from their phone number is impossible, it is tenfold more impossible to guess a user’s location from their IP address. behold this fucking mess:
IP addresses do not have area codes.
IP addresses do not uniquely identify a user (there can be hundreds or thousands of users sharing the same IP address).
most users get their IP address from their Internet Service Provider, which may be located in a different city, a different state, or even a different country entirely.
many users access the web through a VPN, which is a service that effectively lets them keep their identity private by changing their IP address entirely.
the fact that IP addresses are (as a general rule) useless for finding a user’s address is not a new problem, and it is not a secret. as you can imagine, this sort of thing gets litigated all the time. there is a mountain of legal precedent attesting to this fact.
“but if there’s no way to tell where a user is,” you may now be thinking, “how do you know whether you need to collect their ID before showing them Adult Content™?”
HOW, INDEED!!!
consider the following scenario:
Texas has an age verification law on the books. Any website accessible to a user in Texas must check the user’s ID before serving them adult content.
New Mexico has no such law.
User A lives in New Mexico, but their ISP assigns them an IP which flags them as living in Texas (as determined by a third-party geolocation service).
User A attempts to access a titty video from Titty Vids Dot Biz, an adult content website based in New Mexico.
Titty Vids Dot Biz, presuming that User A is from Texas, demands to see User A’s government-issued ID.
User A gets annoyed and leaves.
The state of Texas has, somehow, legislated out of existence a commercial transaction which would otherwise have occurred entirely within another state.
who fucked up here? well, you could argue that the third-party geolocation service fucked up—after all, they’re the ones who incorrectly guessed User A’s location. but they did the best they could with the available information. remember: it is not actually possible to determine a user’s location from an IP address. there will always be errors, and these errors affect millions of people.
you could say that Titty Vids Dot Biz fucked up for trusting the judgement of a third-party geolocation service. but what else can they do? get sued by the state of Texas for allowing Texans to see naked boobies without a license???
well, yes. in fact, Titty Vids Dot Biz is damned no matter what they do. because for every User A who fails to access content they should be allowed to access, there’s a User B in the borderlands of Texas who will succeed in accessing content they shouldn’t be allowed to access: IP-based geolocation fails both ways around.
i’m not a lawyer, but when this problem gets litigated (and i’m sure it’s being litigated now, as we speak), i can only think of a few possible outcomes:
courts recognize the technological impossibility of determining a user’s location by their IP address, and either these laws get struck down or become effectively unenforceable as the user simply has to swear they live in a state where they’re allowed to see titties without an ID—in other words, the ol’ “Enter your date of birth to access this content:” popup gets exactly one extra dropdown to fill out; or
courts sidestep the issue by saying “obviously Texas (etc) can’t sue a corporation not based in Texas (etc) for declining to adhere to Texas (etc)’s censorship policies”, and adult content businesses just legally incorporate in safe states.
the haunting third possibility is that somehow courts simply uphold these laws as-is in spite of the technological impossibility, meaning that any website which might serve users in Texas (etc)—i.e., all of them—must perform age verification all the time (because there’s no way to know a user isn’t in Texas). i don’t know how plausible this outcome is—for one thing, each state’s age verification law differs in the specifics, so you can’t just enforce all of them at once. (but you can’t put anything past this supreme court, so...??? scary!!! scary!!! bad!!!)
anyway, as always, call your representatives and hammer them on age verification as hard as you can. do this whether you live in a “safe state” or not. don’t let them forget how unpopular these policies are!
Teaching children/teens basic internet safety rules such as not giving out personal information (name, age, etc.) and internet stranger danger
Informing parents/guardians about the existence of the YouTube Kids app before they hand the unfiltered iPad to a kid to watch
Informing about YouTube Teen Accounts
More online teen spaces such as MMOs, pet sites, and RP forums with site rules to keep things appropriate
Emphasis of report and block buttons if something said in said spaces makes someone uncomfortable and/or breaks site rules
Game support forums not being locked to Discord servers and easily accessible to the entire userbase
Parental blocks that restrict downloading dedicated "adult community" apps
In mixed age online spaces, adults being less hesitant about using built in content filters such as tags and mature content labels
Parents/guardians understanding age ratings on items such as movies and video games, especially R and M
Parents, guardians, and trusted adults (ex. teachers, librarians) being available to listen and discuss when a topic is confusing (and not immediately get mad and complain about the material)
Better access to youth library materials (ex. young adult)
More/better offline teen spaces and access to hobbies without too much unnecessary expense
The script to oppose KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act) is now officially on https://5calls.org/. Call if you wanna kill KOSA again! It's a must if you don't want age verification in the US!
Do not forget that discord is still planning on moving forward with age verification and has only "delayed it" until "the later half of 2026." They are hoping you will forget while they quietly roll it out when no one is looking. Continue to message them about it. Continue to talk about it. Make it clear this is unacceptable. Discord is one of the only places left you can even talk about or share adult content in private at scale anymore. They will tell you "its not that bad if you dont use it for nsfw" but fuck them and fuck people who say that shit.
you're a little old for pokopia ain't ya. it's not 2017 anymore, you'll never be 20 again meemaw. stop playing kids' games and go sign up for your pension.
So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.
Pro GenAI websites/Programs:
Facebook
Instagram
X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)
Threads
Pro Writing Aid
Grammarly
Duolingo
Google Docs
Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.
Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)
Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.
Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)
Canva Takes and feeds their machine.
Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.
Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.
Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.
Neutral ground:
Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai
Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.
Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).
Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.
Strong positions against AI:
Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.
LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)
Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.
yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.
Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.
Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.
Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.
Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.
Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.
Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.
Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.
Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)
Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.
Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.
Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)
Discover a world of creativity and craftsmanship through Handmade, an innovative platform connecting passionate artisans with discerning buy
Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.
But you need a pro website...
Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/
Use cloudflare:
Use Nightshade:
https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html
which will poison the algorithm
Use Glaze:
Take Away:
The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.
Analysis shows that indiscriminately training generative artificial intelligence on real and generated content, usually done by scrapi
And why not help that along?
I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.
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