Gaming IndustryFloridians appear to be frantically Google searching for VPNs in the wake of the state’s invasive porn banWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Gaming IndustryFloridians appear to be frantically Google searching for VPNs in the wake of the state’s invasive porn banWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Assemble Entertainment)
Newsweek specifically homed in on the search metrics for “free vpn” via Google Trends, which has spiked over each of the last three days after the law went into effect. The location and IP address masking services have a variety of uses, including protecting one’s privacy and accessing region-locked content, so using a VPN to access porn would undoubtedly be a preferable solution to having a government-issued ID somehow tied to your finest moments. In addition to “vpn” and “free vpn,” here are some of my favorite related trending search terms from over the past few days in Florida:
Florida is now one of 17 states, mostly in the south, to institute an age verification requirement for viewing porn or any “material harmful to minors” in the words of Louisiana’s version of the law. In addition to being a hassle, the invasive nature of the verification doesn’t inspire much confidence when our information can be so easily bought, sold, and leaked. In December of 2023, Florida-based data broker National Public Data suffered a breach that compromised 2.9 billion records which included the names and social security numbers of individuals unknowingly caught up in the company’s people-finding dragnet.
Moving forward, I think there are big liability questions for companies that develop and sell VPNs, as well as sites or services that don’t focus on pornography but still host it and other “adult” content: Social media sites like Reddit and Twitter spring to mind first, but this also includes videogame storefronts like Steam and itch.io. As for VPN companies, I wonder if they’ll face challenges to their operation in selected states or, more worryingly, demands that they share user data with state governments and law enforcement. Between this and therepeal of net neutralityin the US, it’s a bad time to say, do, or enjoy anything via the internet.
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