Age Verification Laws Meet VPNs and Lawsuits in a War Over Speech and Privacy

 Thwarted for years by the liberating power of the internet, social conservatives have resumed their crusade against sexually explicit material through age verification requirements. While sold as a means of ensuring that only adults access adult-oriented websites, the laws require people to abandon anonymity and expose potentially sensitive personal information. The browsing public has responded with lawsuits and an embrace of technology that bypasses restrictions. That may not be enough.

Government Pushes Parents Aside to Determine Which Websites are Appropriate

"This is something that I believe will save the current generation and generations to come if we're successful," Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (R–Palm Coast) commented last March upon the passage of HB-3. The bill, which Gov. Ron DeSantis subsequently signed, went into effect January 1. It bans access to pornographic websites for those under 18 years of age. It also forbids those under 14 from opening social media accounts (14- and 15-year-olds can do so with parental permission).

While people argue over whether government officials or parents should be deciding what minors can see and read on the internet, there's general agreement that at least some material is inappropriate for kids. The trick for those who want the government to act and who pushed the passage of HB3 in Florida and similar legislation elsewhere is determining the age of people browsing websites.

Louisiana, which pioneered the flurry of age-verification laws, has a digital version of its driver's license called the LA Wallet. That digital ID can be used to establish a web browser's age to the satisfaction of the law, while also revealing the holder's identity. Most states don't have anything like the LA Wallet.

"In states without a digital identification program like Louisiana's, porn sites must pay third-party age-verification providers to use software to compare a user's face with their ID photo, held up to the camera, or to use AI to determine if their face looks obviously older than 18," The Atlantic's Marc Novicoff noted in a recent article on such laws.

That's clumsy, at best. It's also an added expense that can lead to legal liability for websites if they make mistakes in carding users or handling sensitive data. Some adult sites, like Pornhub, have preferred to block access to residents of states that have age verification laws. This month, the company extended its ban to users in Florida and South Carolina, which also passed an age verification law.

The Tech-Savvy Use Technology To Bypass Enforcement Efforts

But it would be more accurate to say that Pornhub and others have blocked the users who seem to be coming from age verification states. This is where tech fixes come in. Using virtual private networks (VPNs), people can make it seem as if they're surfing the web from less-restrictive jurisdictions. Business is booming.

"Google searches for online tools like VPNs have surged in Florida after Pornhub, one of the world's largest adult websites, blocked access to users in the state," CBS News reported earlier this month. "Since the end of November, Google searches for VPNs have surged in the Florida, according to Google Trends. From the week of Dec. 22 - 28 to Dec. 29 - Jan. 4, searches nearly doubled. Since then, the numbers have gone even higher."

Age verification laws meet VPNs and lawsuits in a war over speech and privacy