It's unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect their privacy and bypass these invasive laws. Their solution? Entirely ban the use of VPNs.

Following the same legislative and narrative pattern as the EU for “Chat Control”, similar laws and rhetoric are now cropping up in the US. The narrative is “save the children from porn” but the action is censorship, mass surveillance, and the elimination of privacy on the Internet.

As of this writing, Wisconsin lawmakers are escalating their war on privacy by targeting VPNs in the name of “protecting children” in A.B. 105/S.B. 130. It’s an age verification bill that requires all websites distributing material that could conceivably be deemed “sexual content” to both implement an age verification system and also to block the access of users connected via VPN. The bill seeks to broadly expand the definition of materials that are “harmful to minors” beyond the type of speech that states can prohibit minors from accessing—potentially encompassing things like depictions and discussions of human anatomy, sexuality, and reproduction.

Wisconsin’s bill has already passed the State Assembly and is now moving through the Senate. If it becomes law, Wisconsin could become the first state where using a VPN to access certain content is banned. Michigan lawmakers have proposed similar legislation that did not move through its legislature, but among other things, would force internet providers to actively monitor and block VPN connections. And in the UK, officials are calling VPNs "a loophole that needs closing.

  • Arghblarg@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    4 months ago

    At some point we’ll just have to tunnel IP over DNS, and then they can’t block traffic without destroying the entire internet. Not that it’ll dissuade them.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    If I understood it correctly, per that legislation and given how the technology works, adult sites would have to block everybody coming to them from a known VPN exit point, not matter where the user actually is (because a site can’t really tell were a user actually is when they’re behind a VPN) to comply with it, meaning that it would impact everybody everywhere in the World using a VPN.

    De facto Wisconcin’s legilslature is trying to imposed their will not only on those who live in Wisconsin, not only on those who live anywhere in the US but on those who live anywhere in World.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      Aaaaaaand I can switch to residential proxies, I can still appear from wherever the fuck I want.

      You. Can’t. Stop. This.

      All this will do is cause actual criminals to hide it better, that is it.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        Theoretically the sites would have to block all IP addresses of all cloud providers, including massive ones such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, because people in Wisconsin can just run VPN Server software - which is side of the VPN were the network connections exit the encrypted tunnel and enter the Internet - in a container or virtual machine inside one those to have their own personal (or shared with whomever they want) VPN.

        Similarly they would have to block all exit IPs of most companies because somebody in Winsconsin might be using the VPN of the company remotelly go to their company network and via that network access those sites and which point the connection will probably appear as originating from one of the company’s routers because of NAT.

        The way the VPN technology works, theoretically every single IP address on the internet might be an exit point of a VPN which is being used by somebody in Winsconsin to access one of those sites, since one can even run VPN Server software on a mobile phone or Raspberry Pi.

        Theoreticaly those sites have to block every single IP address which might directly or indirectly be used that way.

        This law is completelly insane.

  • DaMummy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    There’s a genocide going on. It’s not the porn degenerates, it’s the moral religious people. Don’t push this garbage onto children. At least wait until they’re 25 and their brain is fully developed before you teach them that women are the problem, that little boys should be fondled by grown men, and that it’s OK to commit a genocide against the people who pray to a different sky wizards than you.

  • tidderuuf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    Porn websites should just start blocking access for any lawmakers that are okay with this legislative garbage.

  • Bunbury@feddit.nlEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    Soooo… screw the network of a bunch of companies I guess, lol. I have to use my work’s VPN while working from home, but the way they set it up I also have to use it while working at the office. This is far from a unique setup over here. If this happens to be the same in Wisconsin I have some bad news for them.

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    My IT experience is fading fast so can anyone explain this bit?

    block the access of users connected via VPN

    I’m running a Digital Ocean droplet on the other side of the Pond with my own, static IP. How could a site detect I’m using a VPN? Imgur blocks me if it’s on. How do they know?!

    • Godort@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      Generally, they know you’re using a VPN because of where your traffic is coming from.

      They probably block Digital Ocean’s IP pool as a whole as it’s often a hub for cybercrime and it would only affect a fraction of users.