Privacy isn’t a crime.
But new laws are trying to make it one.
Lawmakers in several U.S. states are pushing bills that would punish the use of VPNs and other privacy tools to reach legal websites. These proposals don’t just target pornography—they threaten free speech, online safety, and the basic right to exist in private.
What’s happening in Wisconsin and Michigan?
Two states are now at the front edge of a dangerous experiment: using “age verification” and “morals” laws as a vehicle to restrict or punish VPN use.
Age verification & VPN blocking requirements
Wisconsin’s AB 105 / SB 130 is an “internet age verification” bill. It targets websites that host a “substantial portion” of content defined as “harmful to minors.”
- Requires these sites to collect age verification data from visitors.
- Allows enforcement through lawsuits and civil penalties.
- Critically: requires such sites to block access from IP addresses known to belong to VPN systems or VPN providers.
The bill has already passed the Wisconsin State Assembly and is moving through the Senate. If enacted, Wisconsin would become one of the first U.S. states where simply using a VPN to reach certain legal content could place ordinary users and service providers under a cloud of legal risk, even when no crime is being committed.
A sweeping “morals” bill that targets VPNs
Michigan’s HB 4938, the so-called “Anticorruption of Public Morals Act,” goes even further. It doesn’t just restrict minors’ access—it aims to:
- Ban all pornography for everyone in the state, with extremely broad definitions that sweep in a huge range of sexual or gender-related content.
- Force internet providers to monitor and block “circumvention tools,” including VPNs, proxy servers, and encrypted tunnels.
- Punish the promotion or sale of such tools with heavy fines and potential criminal penalties.
Privacy advocates, technologists, and VPN providers warn that this would make normal security tools legally toxic, pressure ISPs to block them outright, and create a model other states can copy.
Even if these bills are “only” enforced against certain sites at first, they normalize a dangerous idea: that using privacy tools itself is suspicious and can be restricted or punished by law.
Why treating VPNs as suspect is a disaster for everyone
Supporters of these bills say they are “just about porn” or “just about protecting kids.” But the technical mechanism they use—blocking or penalizing privacy tools—cannot be neatly limited to one topic. It rewires how the internet works.
VPNs are basic safety equipment, not a crime tool
- Companies use VPNs so employees can safely reach internal systems from home.
- Journalists, activists, and dissidents use them to avoid retaliation and surveillance.
- Queer and trans people use them to seek support and information without being outed.
- Survivors of domestic or political abuse use them to browse without being tracked.
- Ordinary people use them to protect against profiling, data brokers, and location-based targeting.
When the law frames VPNs as “circumvention tools” to be blocked or punished, it doesn’t stop bad actors—it makes everyone else less safe.
Technical reality: you can’t “surgically” ban only the bad VPNs
- ISPs and websites can’t reliably tell “good” VPN traffic from “bad” VPN traffic. It’s all just encrypted connections.
- Attempts to block VPN IPs lead to over-blocking: corporate VPNs, remote workers, students, and travelers get caught in the blast radius.
- Forcing deep inspection of traffic to detect circumvention tools pushes systems toward constant, invasive monitoring—the opposite of a free society.
- Once this infrastructure is in place, it can be repurposed for any future political goal: banning dissent, censoring opponents, or discriminating against marginalized groups.
In other words: VPN bans don’t stay “about porn” for long. They become a template for broad, automated censorship.
What you can do right now
These bills are not destiny. They are political experiments—and experiments can be stopped. Here are concrete steps you can take:
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1 · If you live in Wisconsin
Contact your state senator and tell them to oppose AB 105 / SB 130 and any bill that mandates VPN blocking or age-verification schemes that require invasive data collection. Be specific: you are not defending illegal content; you are defending the right to use privacy tools for legal speech. -
2 · If you live in Michigan
Contact your state representative and state senator about HB 4938. Make it clear that banning VPNs, proxies, and encryption tools would:- hurt workers and businesses,
- expose people to more cybercrime,
- and violate basic principles of free expression and privacy.
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3 · Anywhere in the U.S.
Tell your federal representatives you oppose any law—state or federal—that:- criminalizes or penalizes normal use of VPNs or encryption,
- requires ISPs to monitor and block privacy tools, or
- treats anonymous browsing as inherently suspicious.
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4 · Support rights organizations
Organizations like digital-rights groups, civil-liberties unions, and privacy advocates are already tracking and challenging these laws. Supporting them—financially or by amplifying their research—strengthens the coalition pushing back. -
5 · Talk about it
Many people still think VPNs are “just for pirates” or “just for porn.” Share accurate information. Explain that privacy tools are for workers, parents, students, queer and trans people, journalists, and anyone who doesn’t want their every click recorded forever.
FAQ
Isn’t this just about pornography?
No. Porn is the political pretext being used to build a legal and technical framework for blocking privacy tools and tracking what people do online. Once that framework exists, it can be reused for any other topic a future legislature decides to target.
Are VPNs illegal now?
In most of the United States, simply using a VPN is currently legal. These new state bills aim to change that by treating VPNs and similar tools as “circumvention” technologies that can be blocked, restricted, or punished when used to access certain websites.
Important: Nothing on this site is legal advice. Laws are changing rapidly and may be interpreted differently by courts. If you are at personal legal risk, talk to a qualified attorney in your state.
Can’t people just switch to other tools if VPNs are blocked?
Some highly technical users may. But most people—remote workers, teenagers, elders, people in crisis, marginalized communities—cannot easily maintain a moving target of “secret tools.” Turning mainstream, well-supported privacy tools into legal liabilities is a powerful way to chill private communication for the majority.
Does opposing these bills mean opposing any protection for minors?
No. It is possible to care about children’s wellbeing without building an infrastructure of surveillance and censorship that harms them—and everyone else—over the long term. Protecting minors should not require criminalizing or stigmatizing the very tools that keep people safe online.