Utah’s VPN Age-Check Law Starts Wednesday, And Websites Face A Hard Choice
Utah’s new online age-verification law takes effect Wednesday, making the state the first in the U.S. to expressly pull VPN use into enforcement of adult-site age checks. The measure does not ban VPNs, but it makes covered websites responsible for Utah users even when they mask where they are. That matters now because the fight has moved from whether adult sites must check ages to whether they can be forced to police hidden location. A VPN, or virtual private network, routes traffic through another server so a user’s internet address and apparent location can change; Utah’s statute says a person physically in Utah still counts as a Utah visitor.