Starting next week, Utah will become the first state in the United States to impose restrictions on VPN users, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The change comes three years after the state implemented an age verification system for adult websites, which led to a surge in VPN usage.
Senate Bill 73 (SB 73), signed by Utah Governor Spencer Cox on March 19, contains two key provisions that could make VPN use extremely complicated. First, the law states that regardless of what software an individual uses to change their apparent location, as long as they are physically located within Utah, they are deemed to be accessing a website from Utah. This regulation creates a huge legal liability trap for websites, potentially forcing them to outright block all VPN users or enforce age verification on every visitor, regardless of their physical location. The second clause prohibits commercial entities that host "substantial amounts of content harmful to minors" from promoting or encouraging the use of VPNs to bypass age checks.
While the bill does not explicitly ban VPN products, it could significantly reduce the effectiveness of VPNs in bypassing specific website age checks required by the state. Commenting on the new bill, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that the Internet has the inherent ability to bypass censorship. If Utah succeeds in restricting commercial VPN service providers, motivated users will turn to non-commercial proxies, private tunnels established through cloud platforms such as Amazon Cloud Services, or residential proxies that are almost indistinguishable from ordinary household traffic. These workarounds will appear within hours of the law taking effect.
The group warns that these regulations won't stop tech-savvy teens, but they will certainly impact the privacy of every ordinary Utah resident who just wants to protect their data from being accessed by brokers or malicious actors. Meanwhile, collateral damage will fall on businesses, journalists and abuse survivors who rely on commercial VPNs for basic data security.
It’s worth noting that Utah’s Senate is dominated by Republicans, which is intriguing since President Trump has often accused European countries of enacting similar measures aimed at reducing harm to children.