In the current era, safeguarding privacy is increasingly challenging, particularly regarding sensitive data. If you engage in viewing pornographic material, chances are you wish to keep it concealed from advertisers, your internet service provider, or even governmental authorities.
By November 2025, approximately half of the United States and numerous countries, such as the UK and France, will have enacted age-verification regulations. Typically, these regulations mandate that visitors to adult content websites submit personal information (like a government identification or facial recognition scan) to gain access. To navigate around these laws, many individuals are resorting to VPNs, as evidenced by a rise in searches for them in regions where such legislation exists.
A VPN, which stands for virtual private network, disguises your geographical location, and there are numerous options available, both complimentary and subscription-based, in the form of apps or browser extensions.
These networks are easy to use; however, should you utilize a VPN for accessing pornographic content? The answer is intricate.
The consequences of age verification: VPN usage doubles, pornographic traffic falls
VPNs are not “a cloak of anonymity,” asserted Yael Grauer, an investigative technology journalist at Consumer Reports, despite their promotional claims. In practice, certain circumstances may be more appropriate for alternative web security measures, and a VPN could potentially compromise your security.
How do VPNs function?
Rindala Alajaji, a legislative advocate at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), likens VPNs to a P.O. box. If you dispatch a letter using a P.O. box as the return address, the recipient will remain unaware of its origin. Likewise, if you access a site through a VPN, that site will be unaware of your precise location.
As per Haych Li, a former vice president at ExpressVPN, VPNs offer protection in three main ways.
Initially, VPNs encrypt your internet data and traffic. When not encrypted, any intermediaries between you and the destination (such as a pornographic site) can potentially view it, including the owner of a WiFi network at a café. With a VPN, your data is concealed from that intermediary.
Next, VPNs safeguard DNS (Domain Name System) requests by encrypting them. Li likened DNS to a phone directory. A DNS request resembles searching for a contact in the phonebook — you’re instructing your computer to locate something, such as a webpage.
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The third method is that VPNs disguise your IP address, a distinct number associated with your device and location. Computers rely on IP addresses for communication and determining the destination of information. Utilizing a VPN allows you to substitute your genuine IP address with that of the VPN.
“A VPN is centered around concealing your actual IP address,” clarified Chris Hauk, a consumer privacy advocate at the online privacy platform <a href="http://www.pixelprivacy.com/" target