♥️⚠️Pudgizone⚠️♥️🔞

The Illinois law (HB 5511) which would require Operating Systems to add Age Verification has passed the Illinois House of Representatives and is now moving to the State Senate. The vote was 82 to 27 in favor of the law. HB 5511 is sponsored entirely by a group of 11 Democrat Representatives (no Republicans), and was voted for by every Democrat in the Illinois House (as well as a small number of Republicans). All 27 law makers who voted “Nay” on this bill were Republicans. This law was pitched specifically as a “Children’s Social Media” bill, but is heavily focused on all “Internet connected Operating Systems” One unique part of this law, when compared to other “Operating Systems Age Verification” laws, is that it provides an exemption to some of the age requirements… if the Operating Systems provides a paid “Family Account Platform”. The idea is that a parent could create an umbrella “Family” account which would then treat all sub-members of that account (including kids) as having the same age as the parent who created the account. For example: the OS would report that a 7 year old is really 37 (or whatever age the parent is). But this is *only* allowed when such a “Family Account Platform” is a paid feature. It cannot be free. In other words: Age verification for your kids, on all computers, unless you pay. Then your kids are the same age as you. Peculiar. The bill is now waiting to be picked up by a Senate committee. This is not likely to happen before April 28th, when the Illinois Senate is back in session.

The Japanese community is calling out Westerners over piracy, and it sparked a heated discussion. User (luckynosu) asked: “Why is it that so many Westerners can't understand the Japanese way of thinking that hates justifying theft?” But another user (TakumiTakumado) pushed back, pointing out that one of the biggest piracy sites reportedly gets around 45% of its traffic from Japan. It highlights a clear disconnect: in Japan, piracy is widely viewed as outright theft with little tolerance for excuses, while in Western spaces, it’s often justified due to accessibility, pricing, or availability. Meanwhile, the scale of the issue is massive, Japan estimates online piracy caused over ¥5.7 trillion (~$30B+) in digital content losses in 2025 alone.

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