Floridians appear to be frantically Google searching for VPNs in the wake of the state's invasive porn ban

First reported by Newsweek, Google Trends has revealed a completely predictable knock-on effect from the US state of Florida's new ID requirement for accessing internet pornography: Everybody's trying to get in on the VPN game.

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:

• "how to watch porn in florida"
• "duckduckgo"
• "best free von [sic]"
• "new year's day" ⁠—I just think this one's nice

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.

At the time of writing and as reported by 404 Media (users may encounter a paywall), ubiquitous porn site Pornhub has actually voluntarily blocked itself in most of the states with these laws on the books, with only Louisiana allowing access through the use of "LA Wallet," a form of digital ID. Pornhub claims it saw an 80% decrease in traffic from the state, with those users likely turning to VPNs or other sites with more lax standards rather than going cold turkey.

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 the repeal of net neutrality in the US, it's a bad time to say, do, or enjoy anything via the internet.