remember when you thought Age verification laws couldn’t be worseWell, the lawmakers are in wisconsin, michiganAnd Ahead Gonna blow you away.
Unfortunately it is no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before accessing certain content, as politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect their privacy and circumvent these invasive laws. Their solution? Ban the use of VPNs altogether.
Yes true.
At the time of this writing, Wisconsin lawmakers are escalating their war on privacy by targeting VPNs in the name of “protecting children.” ab 105,sb 130This is an age verification bill that requires all websites that distribute content that could potentially be considered “sexual content” to implement age verification systems and block access to users connected through VPNs, The bill seeks to greatly expand the definition of materials that are “harmful to minors” beyond the types of speech that states can prevent minors from accessing – potentially including things like depictions and discussions of human anatomy, sexuality and reproduction,
This follows a notable pattern: As we explained beforeLawmakers, prosecutors, and activists in conservative states have worked for years Aggressively expanding the definition of “harmful to minors” to censor broader levels of content: Miscellaneous Educational Materials, sex education resourcesart, and even winning awards Literature,
Wisconsin’s bill has already passed the state Assembly and is now moving through the Senate. If this becomes law, Wisconsin could become the first state to restrict the use of VPNs to access certain content. Michigan lawmakers have proposed common law Which did not advance through its legislature, but would, among other things, force Internet providers to actively monitor and block VPN connections. And in Britain, officials VPNs are being called “a loophole that needs to be closed”.
This is really happening. And it’s going to be a disaster for everyone.
Here’s why this is a terrible idea
VPNs hide your real location by routing your Internet traffic through another server. When you visit a website through a VPN, that website only sees the IP address of the VPN server, not your actual location. It’s like sending a letter through a PO Box so that the recipient doesn’t know where you actually live.
So when Wisconsin demands that websites “block Wisconsin VPN users”, they are asking for something that is technically impossible. Websites have no way of telling whether a VPN connection is coming from Milwaukee, Michigan, or Mumbai. Technology doesn’t work that way.
Under this proposed law, websites would be left with the option of: either stop operations In Wisconsin, or in the block All VPN users, everywhere, only to avoid legal liability in the state. One state’s terrible law is attempting to break VPN access to the entire Internet, and the unintended consequences of this provision may far outweigh any theoretical benefits.
Almost Everyone Uses a VPN
Let’s talk about who lawmakers are hurting with these bills, because it sure isn’t just people trying to watch porn without surrendering their driver’s license.
- Businesses run on VPNs. with every company remote workers Uses VPN. Every business traveler is connecting with Sketchy Hotel Wi-Fi need one. Companies use VPN To protect customer and employee data, secure internal communications and prevent cyber attacks.
- Students need a VPN for school. Universities require students to use a VPN to access research databases, course materials, and library resources. These are not optional, and many professors literally assign assignments that can only be accessed through the school VPN. University of Wisconsin–Madison WiscVPNFor example, “UW–Madison allows faculty, staff and students to access university resources regardless of whether they are using a commercial Internet service provider (ISP).”
- Vulnerable people rely on VPNs for security. domestic abuse survivors Use a VPN to hide your location from your abusers. journalists Use them to protect your sources. worker Use them to organize without government oversight. LGBTQ+ people in a hostile environment – both in the US and around the world-Use them to access health resources, support groups, and community. For people living under censorship regimes, VPNs are often their only connection to important resources and information that are banned by their governments.
- Regular people just want privacy. Maybe you don’t want every website you visit to track your location and sell that data to advertisers. You probably don’t want your Internet service provider (ISP) to create a complete profile of your browsing history. Maybe you just think it’s scary that corporations know wherever you go online. VPNs can protect everyday users from everyday tracking and surveillance.
It’s a privacy nightmare
Here’s what to do if VPNs get blocked: Everyone has to verify their age by submitting government ID, biometric data, or credit card information directly to websites — without any encryption or privacy protections.
We already know how this story ends. companies get cut offget data ViolationAnd suddenly your real name is linked to the websites you visit, stored in some poorly-secured database awaiting the inevitable leak, It’s already happened, and it’s not an issue If But When?And when that happens, the consequences will be huge,
Forcing people to give up their privacy to access legal content is the exact opposite of good policy. This surveillance has been given the garb of security.
“Harmful to minors” is no big deal
Another interesting feature of these laws is: They are trying to expand One group of speech includes the definition of “harmful to minors” that is safe for both young people and adults.
Historically, states could prevent people under 18 from accessing sexual materials that an adult could access under the First Amendment. But the definition of “harmful to minors” is narrow – it generally requires that the materials have almost no social value to minors and that, taken as a whole, they appeal to the “sacred sexual interests” of minors.
Wisconsin’s bill defines “harmful to minors” more broadly. This applies to materials that merely describe sex or describe/illustrate human anatomy. This definition would likely include a wide range of literature, music, television, and films that are protected under the First Amendment for both adults and youth, not to mention basic scientific and medical material.
Additionally, the bill’s definition would apply to any website where more than one-third of the site’s content is “harmful to minors.” Given the broadness of the definition and its one-third trigger, we estimate that Wisconsin could argue that the law applies to most social media websites. And it’s not hard to imagine, as these topics become increasingly politicized, that Wisconsin claims this applies to websites containing LGBTQ+ health resources, basic sex education resources, and reproductive health care information.
This breadth of the bill’s definition is not a bug, it’s a feature. It gives the state wide discretion to decide what speech is “harmful” to youth, and also the power to decide what is “appropriate” and what is not. History often shows us the same decisions Injury Marginalized community,
this also won’t work
Let’s say Wisconsin somehow succeeds in passing this law. Here’s what will actually happen:
Those who want to bypass this will use non-commercial VPNs, open proxies or cheap virtual private servers that are not covered by the law. They will find a solution within a few hours. The Internet has always revolved around censorship.
Even in a hypothetical world where every website successfully blocked all commercial VPNs, people would simply create their own. You can route traffic through cloud services like AWS or DigitalOcean, tunnel through someone else’s home Internet connection, use open proxies, or build a cheap server for less than a dollar.
Meanwhile, everyone else (businesses, students, journalists, abuse survivors, regular people who just want privacy) will have their VPN access affected. This law will accomplish nothing except making the Internet less safe and less private for users.
However, as we mentioned before thisWhile VPNs may be able to hide the source of your Internet activity, they are not foolproof – nor should they be required to access legally protected speech. Like the larger age verification legislation of which they are part, VPN-blocking provisions simply don’t work. They harm millions of people and set a terrible precedent for government control of the Internet. More fundamentally, legislators need to recognize that age verification laws themselves are the problem. They don’t work, they violate privacy, they’re too easy to avoid, and they cause more harm than they prevent.
a false dilemma
people have (presumably) turned to vpn To protect their privacy as they saw the spread of age verification mandates around the world. Instead of taking this as a sign that maybe mass surveillance isn’t popular, lawmakers have decided that the real problem is that these privacy tools exist and they’re trying to ban the tools that let people keep their privacy.
Let’s be clear: Lawmakers need to abandon this entire approach.
The answer to “how do we keep kids safe online” isn’t “destroy everyone’s privacy.” It “does not force people to hand over their IDs to access legal content.” And it certainly isn’t “a restriction on access to tools that protect journalists, activists and survivors of abuse.”
If lawmakers really care about the well-being of young people, they should invest in education, support parents with better tools and address the real root causes of online harm. What they should not do is wage a war on privacy. Attacks on VPNs are attacks on digital privacy and digital freedom. And this battle is being fought by people who clearly have no idea how this technology actually works.
If you live in Wisconsin-reach out to your senator And urge them to kill AB 105/SB 130. Our privacy matters. VPNs matter. And politicians who can’t tell the difference between security tools and “loopholes” shouldn’t be writing laws about the Internet.