Michigan Anti-Pornography Legislation May Also Limit VPN Usage


A proposed anti-porn legislation in Michigan may also prohibit VPNs to stop individuals from circumventing adult content limitations. The bill, brought forth by six Republican legislators, is extremely limiting. It would not only outlaw all types of adult content but also ban any portrayals of transgender persons. Furthermore, the statute suggests a prohibition on “circumvention tools,” which encompass VPNs, proxy servers, and encrypted tunneling techniques. This action is unprecedented, even as other states have enacted age-restriction regulations on adult materials. Banning pornography and VPNs is severe, and forbidding any representations of transgender individuals is equally drastic. At present, this is merely proposed legislation, and its chances of being enacted into law are unclear. Nevertheless, it is significant how far-reaching such prohibitions can be, especially as comparable legislation gains momentum nationwide. The legislation specifies the type of material it considers pornographic and explicitly forbids “one biological sex imitating, depicting, or representing himself or herself as the other biological sex.” This sweeping stipulation could unintentionally prohibit many works, including Shakespeare plays, “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Juwanna Mann,” and others. VPNs are the most prevalent means of accessing porn sites and streaming adult content privately. We have highlighted the top VPNs for this purpose at Mashable. We have also examined the ramifications these anti-porn laws and age-verification measures have on the open internet. While these laws strive to prevent children from accessing adult sites, they raise serious privacy issues, frequently necessitating individuals to disclose personal information to gain access to significant portions of the internet.