US lawmakers suggest banning VPNs to protect children
Legislators in Wisconsin and Michigan are considering implementing laws that prohibit the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to visit websites that host content that’s harmful to minors.
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Legislators in Wisconsin and Michigan are considering implementing laws that prohibit the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to visit websites that host content that’s harmful to minors.
More and more lawmakers in the United States believe it’s their responsibility to protect young children from sexual material, hate speech, and other harmful content on the internet.
One way to accomplish this is by implementing age verification systems. However, these systems can be fooled and bypassed with a VPN. Therefore, in addition to age verification methods, some states wish to entirely ban the use of VPNs.
Such a bill has been presented in Wisconsin. Websites that offer sexual content not only have to implement an age verification system, but they also have to block users who are trying to connect using a VPN.
The bill has already passed the State Assembly and is now moving through the Senate. If it’s adopted, Wisconsin would become the first US state where using a VPN to access content is forbidden.
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In Michigan, lawmakers have proposed similar legislation and would also force internet providers to actively monitor and block VPN connections. Here, the bill hasn’t moved through its legislature, though.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argues that banning VPNs is a terrible idea.
“Forcing people to give up their privacy to access legal content is the exact opposite of good policy. It’s surveillance dressed up as safety,” the American digital rights group says in a blog post.
Additionally, businesses, students, journalists, and regular people who just want online privacy won’t be able to use VPNs to protect their privacy.
“The law will accomplish nothing except making the internet less safe and less private for users (…) Legislators need to recognize that age verification laws themselves are the problem. They don’t work, they violate privacy, they’re trivially easy to circumvent, and they create far more harm than they prevent,” the digital rights group adds.
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If lawmakers want to keep kids safe online, they should invest in education, support parents with better tools, and address the root causes of harm online, the EFF suggests.
“The answer to ‘how do we keep kids safe online’ isn’t ‘destroy everyone’s privacy.’ It’s not ‘force people to hand over their IDs to access legal content.’ And it’s certainly not ‘ban access to the tools that protect journalists, activists, and abuse survivors,’” the interest group concludes.
In Europe, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom have implemented laws that require websites that offer pornographic material to verify the age of their visitors using age verification methods. However, none of them have suggested blocking VPNs.
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