The world is a strange place right now, and you’ll find just as much change and turmoil online as off. In the past year, many countries have introduced restrictions on internet access, requiring users to upload ID to access adult content, and generally making the internet less accessible. Now, in America, we see that the law is about to get tougher on VPNs.
This news comes specifically from Utah, where bill S.B. 73 has now come into effect. This bill seeks to stop children using VPNs to access adult content, and states that “A commercial entity that operates 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 to circumvent age verification requirements.”
On the surface, that makes sense. As much as I am a VPN advocate, I also recognise that there is content on the internet that is harmful to children, and it makes sense to limit their access to this content. Certain websites will have content that is undeniably inappropriate for kids, so they should be taking steps to keep kids off the site, right? This bill has been written up with the best of intentions, but as ever, the devil is in the details.
First, this bill does not specify what constitutes “material harmful to minors,” which opens up a huge can of worms. Different people are going to have different opinions about what makes something harmful to children. For instance, I suspect that many parents, regardless of their beliefs, would consider content that reinforces values antithetical to their own as harmful for kids – and that will encompass practically everything.
Meanwhile, even if you try to narrow it by saying “oh, it’s just sexual content,” it’s still problematic. For all the leery stuff out there, the internet is also full of educational resources that have been specifically designed to help children understand their sexuality and to promote good sexual health. It’s all well and good for someone to say that content like that should only be available to over-18s, but you can guarantee that younger people have been dealing with these feelings from a much younger age.
Then there’s this part of the bill: “An individual is considered to be accessing the website from this state if the individual is actually located in the state, regardless of whether the individual is using a virtual private network, proxy server, or other means to disguise or misrepresent the individual’s geographic location to make it appear that the individual is accessing a website from a location outside this state.”
That’s outlining the individuals that businesses need to be responsible for. From a completely detached perspective, it makes sense, but when you think of its legal ramifications, it all starts to unravel. How are the website owners supposed to have any idea if someone who appears to be from one region might actually be using a VPN in Utah? It’s impossible. It seems that the bill was likely written up by somebody who does not have a comprehensive understanding of VPNs and the internet.
If you’re looking to protect your privacy online amidst all these changes, take a look at our list of the best VPN services. We’ve tried and tested NordVPN, Proton VPN, Surfshark, CyberGhost, and ExpressVPN, and they’re all good choices (with Nord our favorite). With privacy appearing to be increasingly under threat, they’re well worth looking into.