Utah Wants to Age Verify VPN Users

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]There's a new age verification law that goes into effect on May 6th that is freaking a lot of people out. It is a a good conversation, I think, when it comes to the crossroads of protecting children and concerns about government overreach and potentially privacy issues. So, I want to talk about Utah's SB73 and sort of the pros and cons of what this bill is trying to do versus what it's maybe accomplishing. So, let's get started.

[00:00:29]In March of this year, Governor Spencer Cox of Utah signed into law SB73. So, this was a state level piece of legislation that was proposed as part of essentially Utah's ongoing battle to protect children online, which I would say is a noble goal. It is, however, maybe not the best vehicle, and I think we're just here to debate that. I don't have a complete opinion on this. I'm still researching it and you'll kind of see why this law seems like it will be difficult to enforce but if enforced could potentially impact everyone everywhere. So at the crux of the law is or at the main debate are a couple lines in the legislation that I'll go through in a second that require any entity with a website in Utah to basically verify if someone viewing the website is based in Utah and if they're using a VPN to verify their age. So, uh, this is difficult because the whole point of a VPN is you don't know where they are.

[00:01:29]But the onus of penalizing people for using a VPN falls basically on the companies that are operating within Utah. And potentially, you could see people or companies withdraw from Utah for that reason. Uh, it also hypothetically would mean that an international you user uh or or person viewing a website is subject to Utah's I don't know search protocol and is that fair? Is that is that a an appropriate use of of authority? Does that protect their data? I don't totally have an answer on this. So, I want to go to uh the law itself. So, this is SB73. It was proposed by Senator Calvin Muslman and uh Representative Steve Ellison Elias.

[00:02:14]It is titled officially the online age verification amendments and it was proposed like I said during this current general session. Utah, it's important to know has ha has been waging war specifically against pornography websites like Pornhub. And there was a lot of back and forth about this. they introduced a bill requiring sites that have sexually explicit or adult content to verify users age. And this became kind of a national battle because since then uh I think over 20 states have adopted similar laws. And the operator of Pornhub in particular, it's the biggest one in the world, has argued that this kind of age verification violates people's privacy. They would have to have digital IDs. There are sort of safety issues. And I don't totally disagree with some of those concerns.

[00:03:02]I'll just say like I don't think it's a bad idea to make sure that minors can't access these websites because research shows the long-term impact on the brain is really bad. Uh but just because you want to do something good doesn't mean that you can triple on all the other rights. And I think this field of protecting children online is where you will see this war carried out the most intensely. And the the legal battles and the legislation that comes from it will kind of decide the the road we go down.

[00:03:31]Even if it's sort of patchwork, one state does this thing, there's a lawsuit here. You guys can go back on this channel. I covered the lawsuits in California and New Mexico against major social media companies. You know, again, I just want to be clear, protecting children, noble, noble goal. But, you know, can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. You want to make sure that people's rights to privacy and free speech are protected, even if it's maybe for something that I wouldn't approve of. So, back to the bill. So, this is SB73.

[00:03:59]You can see the sponsors here. Uh I'm going to skip down. Uh but I just want to give you the the general description.

[00:04:05]Uh this bill enacts provisions related to online providers of harmful content to minors. So in some of the coverage of this bill, there is a concern that it's going to be widely applied. So, if you were someone in Sweden and you were using a VPN because that's what you chose to do for your own personal privacy and protection because that's how VPNs can be used that you would be, you know, in trouble or there would be some kind of problem if you were looking at like the merch store for the Utah Jazz, right? Like if you're in your own country using a VPN, does the sports team pay a penalty because an online person internationally is using PN?

[00:04:44]there there is a little bit of confusion about how this law will be applied. Uh the other part is that the the bill is largely actually to create a fine like not a fine is what is that what they're calling it but a tax on uh sites that have harmful content or essentially like adult content. They will have to pay extra taxes to exist and I think in some ways that's to discourage them from doing business in the state. You can see it here. directs tax revenue to the department of health and human services and the division of consumer protection to be used for mental health programs and enforcement of age verification requirements. So uh the major concern is what happens to the use of VPNs or or or how does this impact people who are using VPNs for personal internet protection uh not to evade you know regulations on what they're allowed to do online as provided by Utah. I've skipped down to the portion that relates to VPN and age verification. It's section 78B-30002 and it says is amended to read a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of material harmful to minors shall perform reasonable age verification methods to find the age of an individual attempting to access the material. So, this narrows the scope from some of the initial panic that I saw. It's not every website out there.

[00:06:14]It's not like every clothing retailer.

[00:06:17]It's specific to this idea of material that is is harmful to minors. And again, to me, this seems specific to its war against uh the porn industry. But, you know, potentially Utah is a relatively dry state in terms of alcohol. They're restrictive on like what counties you can buy it in. Like maybe you could apply this to the retailer of like a like a vineyard or a brewery or something. If if someone's viewing that, maybe that would apply.

[00:06:45]It's hard for me to say. And I think part of it is like this is a b this this is really a test, right? like defining all of these terms, website, uh, commercial entity, distributes material harmful to minors, like all of these things need to be defined and potentially would have to be defined via a battle in court. Uh, let me keep going here. So it says uh websites contain a substantial portion of materials harmful to minors if the commercial entity markets or brands the website as primarily providing materials harmful to minors uses a website name domain name or subdomain name that indicates the website primarily provides material harmful to minors or advertises or promotes material harmful harmful to minors as the primary feature on the websites. Again, like I said, I think given the legislative history over the last couple years, I know where this is intended to go, but it is a little vague. If you sell vapes, does that mean that you also have to verify the ages of the users? I think a lot of these websites you do have to click a like I'm over 18 anyways. Uh but it's just this is always a question with legislation.

[00:07:53]How is it going to be applied? It continues, "A commercial entity or third party that performs the required age verification shall not retain any identifying information of the individuals after access has been granted to the materials." So, does that make you feel safer? I don't know.

[00:08:12]An individual is considered to be accessing the website from this state, Utah, if the individual is actually located in the state, regardless of whether the individual is using a virtual private network, a VPN, proxy, uh proxy server, or other means of disguising or misrepresenting the individual's geographic location to make it appear that the individual is accessing the website from a location outside the state. A commercial entity that operates the website that contains a substantial portion of materials harmful to minors may not facilitate or encourage the use of a virtual private network, proxy server, or other means of circumventing age verification requirements, including by providing a instructions on how to use instructions on how to use a virtual private network or b means for the individual in this state to circumvent geoencing or blocking. So, initially when the ban against Pornhub was enacted, this is what I heard all the time. Well, people will just use a VPN. You know, savvy tech teens will find a way around it. Uh, so this seems to be kind of the follow-up. Like I said, it seems like the continuence of a war on on this front that Utah's legislature is taking really seriously right now. H this is one of the components that I that is stressing people out that you can't say how to use a VPN and get around it. So, if you're a website of offense that, you know, meets this definition of uh marketing harmful material to minors, you can't have on your page like, oh, this is how you install a VPN. And it's true in other places, too, that that there are restrictions on what you're allowed to say about virtual private networks, uh, and what kind of instructions you're allowed to give out about them. It's just this is sort of a one-of-a-kind piece of legislation. It seems to be sort of cutting edge and just because it's cutting edge doesn't mean it will work. One of the opponents or critics of this law is the Electronic Frontier Foundation and they released an article at the end of April saying basically this goes into effect and we need to be scared. I'm going to read you a portion of what they said. So this is from EFF.

[00:10:22]By holding companies liable for verifying the age of anyone physically in Utah, even those using a VPN, the law creates a massive liability trap. If a website cannot reliably detect a VPN user's true location and the law requires it to do so for all users in a particular state, then the legal risk could push the site to either ban all known VPN IPs or to mandate age verification for every visitor globally.

[00:10:49]This would subject millions of users to invasive identity checks or blocks on their VPN use regardless of where they actually live. So, is it reasonable to do this again with the end goal of protecting children or is this a massive overreach? It's hard for me to say and part of it is like I'm just not an expert in cyber security and I don't think it's wrong to use a VPN. On the other hand, I know it it doesn't seem wrong to me that Utah is trying to get ahead of a lot of the damages that we see from uh basically unfettered access to the internet and also some predatory practices among a lot of websites. It's not just those in the adult entertainment industry. It's also, you know, social media stuff. Again, I did a video on this a couple weeks ago uh related to a lawsuit. But I don't know that I want one state to be like and now I get everyone's data even if you're saying in the law they're supposed to get rid of it. Like oh do we trust this?

[00:11:46]What do you guys think? If you want to read in depth uh if you're looking for more information about the status of these type of laws in the US and uh what the Supreme Court has had to say, I recommend this article from Desireette News. I'm just going to read you a small portion of it, but it's titled how Utah plans to turn the tide on porn. Like I said, even though the fears are very general, Utah has a very specific mission. And this is uh from Desireette News. It says, it's quoting Senator Calvin Musulman, who is the sponsor of this bill. And he said to this outlet, "We have a responsibility as a state, number one, to protect minors, but also to facilitate a path forward that they can have a healthy relationships in their adulthood." So he's referencing a lot of studies that say basically pornography addiction especially when it begins at a young age inhibits people from being able to emotionally bond with partners in the future. It has addiction issues, anxiety, depression. There's a lot of stuff. Desert News goes Desert News goes on the new law SB73 sponsored by Muslim Republican West Haven will apply a 2% excise tax on to to online pornography.

[00:12:55]The tax follows the tobacco model by earmarking 90% of revenues to offset negative costs to society. These revenues can only be used for mental health treatment, outreach, and education programs related to harmful online materials for minors. The other 10% will be used to pay for enforcement measures.

[00:13:15]So, what do you guys think? Is this a reasonable bill? Does it go too far? Are you concerned about having your online privacy uh subjected to scrutiny by this state? I'm really curious. I I sometimes worry about doing videos like this where I'm like, "Here's just a bunch of information. I don't have a full opinion yet." But I I like that you guys sometimes give me insights that I don't know. And I would never want to come on the internet and be like, I know everything about everything and have a fully formed opinion. It's the kind of area of legislation I find interesting because the internet is such a new and useful and dangerous tool. How we use it, how our children use it, how uh the students in our community use it is really important and I think we are just now starting to wrap our arms around the fact that while it brings lots of good things, there are lots of bad things and it's better to intervene early. On the other hand, do I want to pay with my do I want to give up my sense of priv my right to privacy or my ability to protect myself by using a VPN for this cause? It's hard to say. So, I'm curious in your feedback, guys. Thank you so much for watching this video. I will see you in another one later this week.