Age Verification: The Compliance Nightmare Arrives
Multiple conversations circled back to age verification requirements and the operational chaos they're creating across the industry. The technical challenges are significant: implementing verification systems that actually work, managing user data with appropriate security, and dealing with the inevitable customer friction when you force people to upload government IDs to watch pornography.
But the strategic implications run deeper. Age verification creates natural moats around established platforms with resources to implement compliant systems while crushing smaller operators who can't afford the infrastructure or legal complexity. It's regulatory capture disguised as child protection, and everyone in these conversations understood the real dynamics at play.
The shift toward safe-for-work content strategies emerged as the other side of this coin.
If age verification makes adult content too complicated or risky, the play becomes building an audience on mainstream platforms with SFW content, then converting that attention into adult platform subscriptions through careful funnel design. Instagram thirst traps leading to OnlyFans subscriptions and TikTok personalities building followings and then monetizing through Patreon with increasingly explicit tiers.