Next week, FSC is kicking off 2026 with our annual FSC Summit on Thursday, January 15, at XBIZ LA in the Nichols meeting rooms of the Kimpton Everly Hotel. We will have a full day of analysis and insight you won’t get anywhere else, so make sure to join us! 

The summit will begin and end with exclusive member appreciation events, including a Member Breakfast and Member Happy Hour, so members should be sure to RSVP in advance. 

Programming includes Post to Policy: Creating Media for Advocacy, interactive mini-sessions on topics ranging from StopNCII.org and First Amendment basics to activist rights and cross-industry collaboration, a focused breakdown of Five Things You Need to Know About Age Verification in 2026 with Mike Stabile and Alison Boden, a board-led discussion on FSC’s 2026 agenda, and a look at what to expect from Washington in the year ahead. The age verification session will feature live Q&A, so please submit your questions now to help shape the conversation and make sure the issues that matter most to you are addressed on stage. See you there! 

“Mike Stabile, public policy director at the nonprofit Free Speech Coalition, has more than 20 years of experience working in the adult industry and understands how adult sites operate and moderate content. He believes that OpenAI and similar companies must implement a similar level of nuance in their moderation practices to fully ensure CSAM and fetish content featuring children doesn’t make it onto the platform. This could involve banning or limiting certain words that might be associated with fetish content and improving moderation teams with more diversity and training. 

‘We already see this struggle with platforms like Facebook. How do they differentiate between a parent sharing a picture of their kid playing in a pool or the bath versus somebody who's sharing something that's meant to be child sex abuse material?’ Stabile told WIRED. 

‘Anytime you're dealing with kink or fetish, there will be things that people who are not familiar are going to miss,’ he says.” Read more on Wired...

Sunday Faire is hosting an awards-season fundraiser gala on January 16 at St. Felix in Hollywood to benefit PASS Certified, supporting health and safety in the adult industry. The event will feature a red carpet, DJ and dance floor, interactive fundraising (including a charity dunk tank), free entry for new PASS sign-ups, and gift bags for the first 25 attendees. Creators, studios, and community members are invited to celebrate together while raising funds for an essential industry resource. Read more on AVN...

Eversense founder Matty Hennessy shares how his lived experience as a transmasculine person and longtime pleasure industry professional led him to create gender affirming sex toys designed with, not just for, trans bodies. Through a community driven design process, Eversense is developing products like My Tie and Holdme that address dysphoria, changing bodies, and accessibility, while prioritizing affordability through mutual aid inspired pricing. Hennessy’s approach centers care, inclusion, and the belief that every body deserves pleasure and affirmation. Read more on XBIZ...

Legal Nevada sex workers are facing a wave of account suspensions on X, despite working in a fully legal, licensed industry and posting no illegal content. The piece argues that removing their voices from the platform undermines public understanding, skews policy debates, and contradicts claims that X protects lawful free expression. By silencing the people most directly affected, the digital public square becomes one sided and leaves broader free speech protections for marginalized communities at risk. Read more on Medium...

New research from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation finds that age verification rules under the UK’s Online Safety Act are pushing many porn users toward unregulated websites, with nearly half reporting they have accessed such sites since the rules took effect. The report warns this shift may expose users to more harmful or illegal content, even as some users reduce their consumption or turn to VPNs to bypass restrictions. Read more on Independent...

A Utah lawmaker has introduced a bill that would impose a 7 percent tax on online adult content to fund age verification enforcement and teen mental health programs. The proposal would apply broadly to producers, platforms, and creators, add new annual compliance fees, and stack on top of existing taxes, increasing financial and regulatory pressure on the adult industry. Critics warn the measure expands Utah’s already aggressive age verification regime and could further drive platforms and creators out of the state. Read more on AVN...