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Utah’s Senate Bill 73 will take effect May 6, adding new requirements to the state’s age verification law. Websites covered by the law will be prohibited from explaining how VPNs can be used to bypass age restrictions. They will also be responsible for enforcing age verification for users physically located in Utah, even when a user’s virtual location appears to be outside the state.
The provisions are framed as updates to Utah’s existing age verification law, but they could have broader legal and technical implications. One provision bars covered businesses from discussing VPN workarounds on their websites, a restriction that could face First Amendment challenges.
The location-enforcement provision has raised concerns among online freedom advocates. A VPN can make a user appear to be accessing a website from another state or country. Under the law, if an underage Utah resident uses a VPN to appear outside Utah and gains access to restricted material, the website could face liability.
The law leaves affected online businesses with limited options. One option would be to require age verification for all users, regardless of location, which would affect every visitor to the site and could reduce traffic or revenue.
Another option would be to attempt to block VPN traffic. That approach can be technically difficult because VPN traffic can be made to resemble ordinary web traffic. Websites often rely on blocking IP addresses associated with VPN services, but VPN providers can add new addresses.
Blocking VPN use also raises broader rights concerns. In many countries, VPN access is associated with privacy and free expression protections. Utah’s law places new pressure on websites to determine a user’s physical location in a way that may be difficult to enforce without broader restrictions on privacy tools.
So far, states have largely avoided outright VPN bans. A proposal to ban VPNs in Wisconsin failed after similar concerns were raised. Utah’s law does not impose a total VPN ban, but legal challenges to the measure and similar age verification laws are expected in the weeks and months ahead.
