Report from Engadget
In Brief – The Utah Department of Commerce has agreed to temporarily suspend enforcement of the state’s new law targeting VPN use to avoid its age limit for online pornography while a federal court considers a legal challenge brough by Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub. Earlier this year, Utah became the first US state to enact a law specifically targeting VPN usage as part of its effort to restrict minors’ access to adult content. SB 73 treats anyone physically in Utah as accessing a website from the state, even when using a VPN, leaving adult sites in the position to determine where a VPN user is located. It also prohibits adult websites from facilitating or encouraging VPN use, raising clear First Amendment concerns. Privacy advocates warn the law could pressure adult websites to block VPNs nationwide or impose age verification on all users regardless of IP address. Federal District Judge David Barlow has not indicated when he will rule on Aylo’s motion for a temporary injunction. Pornhub has blocked access in 25 states rather than comply with age-verification laws.
Context – The explosion of age-based online content laws is drawing attention to how users often try to employ VPN technology services to circumvent local online content restrictions. Australia’s landmark 16-year-old threshold for social media accounts is the highest profile, but additional governments continue to proclaim their commitment to protecting teens from social media, pornography and/or gaming sites. VPN usage reportedly spiked in the UK last summer as users responded to the Online Safety Act and in Australia when their social media age limit went into effect. Officials in the UK, France, and several US states are calling for legal restrictions on VPNs to stymie their use for online regulation work-arounds. VPN use is also at the heart of recent global content takedown orders X received from an Australian regulator and Canadian judge, both ruling that since local users could employ a VPN to circumvent a local online content restriction, X needed to block offending content globally.