The Utah law, passed on Wednesday, aims to prevent the use of VPNs to access sex sites.
The legislation is part of SB 73, which contains amendments to the state’s age verification law. These laws generally require proof of age to access adult content (or any content the state deems “harmful to children”).
Utah’s age verification law, SB 287, went into effect in 2023; requires age verification with a digital ID card, third-party verification service, or credit card.
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Pornhub quickly blocked users in Utah as the law went into effect.
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Age verification is usually not effective because it can be skipped. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which hide a user’s real location, are one popular way to do that. That’s what the Utah law aims to address when it says that porn sites must not allow VPN use. Here is the related language:
A commercial entity operating a website that contains a substantial portion of material harmful to minors may not facilitate or encourage the use of a virtual private network, proxy server, or other means of circumventing age verification requirements, including providing: (a) instructions on how to use a virtual private network or proxy server to access the website; or (b) means that people in this state avoid geofencing or blocking.
“Utah just became the first state in the US to target VPN use, and shame on them,” said Lia Holland, director of campaigns and communications at digital rights group Fight for the Future, in a statement to Mashable.
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Holland added that the official language in question reads like AI slop.
“You can’t require a website to verify age to find out where someone using a reputable VPN is browsing from – this is not possible by the best hacker’s design,” Holland continued. Websites are left with three options, Holland said: block everyone using a VPN (which may not be possible), require every visitor to verify their age, or screen everything that might fall under Utah’s “harmful to children” standard.
Fight for the Future says it will support any lawsuit filed against Utah to overturn the law.
The non-profit digital civil liberties organization, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), also criticized SB 73. EFF’s director of state affairs, Rindala Alajaji, wrote in a blog post published on April 30: “These provisions will not stop tech-savvy youth, but will certainly have an impact on the self-defense of all Utah citizens who want to expose wrong information.”
Alajaii added: “Attacks on VPNs are, at their core, attacks on tools that enable digital privacy. Utah sets a precedent that prioritizes government control over the basic structure of a private and secure internet, and it will not stop at state borders.”
“Protecting children while preserving freedom is not a new concept,” said SB 73 sponsor Sen. Calvin Musselman. Salt Lake Tribuneand compared it to the laws regarding alcohol, tobacco and gambling. (Alcohol, tobacco, and gambling are not protected by the First Amendment, however; free speech is.)
SB 73 appears to be the first bill passed to ban VPNs, but another ban has been proposed in Michigan. The UK government is also considering banning VPNs for children.
When speaking to Mashable last year about age verification, First Amendment experts warned against second-order checks. The first order of business is age verification, they explain, but people find workarounds. Second-order testing means preventing workarounds.
