The place Florida’s new regulation falls brief

Children On-line

A few of the state’s new little one security regulation might be simply circumvented. Ought to it have gone additional?

14 Jan 2025
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4 min. learn

Florida’s state legislators lately handed a brand new invoice geared toward defending youngsters on-line. The highlights of the invoice, which is named HB 3, are obligatory age verification for accessing materials that’s deemed dangerous to minors, and prohibiting youngsters youthful than 14 from becoming a member of social media, with parental or guardian consent required for these below 16.

With out wishing to enter the talk on the deserves of the intent of the invoice, I personally agree that defending minors from inappropriate and dangerous content material is a optimistic step even when the measures are unenforceable and solely act to lift consciousness.

The VPN workaround

The requirement to limit entry to dangerous content material by requiring age verification has precipitated a surge of individuals trying to find ‘VPN’ (Digital Non-public Community), in keeping with Google Tendencies. There’s additionally a flurry of articles that specify tips on how to circumvent the requirement through the use of a VPN to masks your location and seem like exterior of Florida. Many of those articles – which have been printed particularly after a number of main grownup web sites blocked your complete state from entry in response to the regulation – are sponsored or comprise affiliate hyperlinks to obtain and buy VPN software program and companies.

Is that this all shocking? No. VPN expertise has lengthy been a well-liked device for circumventing entry restrictions, whether or not they’re geo-restrictions on streaming platforms or entry to restricted content material. With HB 3 in place, implementing a restriction equivalent to age verification implies that all customers, no matter age, must be age verified, and thus anybody not wishing to be recognized in any manner when looking adult-based content material will search for alternate strategies to entry content material.

The Florida laws does, in some type, restrict the danger of ‘unintended looking’ of content material which may be dangerous, since entry to such content material will probably be behind the ‘age verification wall’, versus a publicly accessible homepage. I’m certain business corporations who monetize by offering grownup content material will need to keep away from the eye of regulation enforcement and HB 3 to keep away from potential authorized motion and fines. However there’s a mass of grownup content material on the web that’s obtainable with out business intent and is hosted in international locations the place taking authorized motion from Florida could be too complicated, or close to not possible.

Given the restrictions imposed by the laws are so simply circumvented, possibly the invoice may have gone one step additional. When drafting the laws, somebody within the room absolutely talked about that it may very well be circumvented simply by utilizing a VPN – at the least I hope they did. For me, this raises the query of why the laws doesn’t place limitations that transcend the content material supplier and embrace companies that present the flexibility to virtualize your location to someplace exterior of Florida.

VPN expertise gives cybersecurity advantages, notably when connecting over public networks, however its performance is usually misunderstood. The idea that the connection turns into non-public is just true partially. When utilizing a VPN, the connection is just encrypted between the machine and the VPN server; from this server to the meant vacation spot, the connection is not within the encrypted tunnel and is identical as any customary connection between the browser and the vacation spot webserver.

VPN suppliers nonetheless have visibility into key particulars: they know the situation of the machine, by way of its IP deal with, and the meant vacation spot of the request. Utilizing easy net filtering instruments, the VPN supplier may merely block entry to grownup content material or implement their very own age verification necessities, eradicating the likelihood to avoid the restrictions. For instance, web service suppliers within the UK undertake an analogous method, as they block grownup content material by default except customers decide in, thereby defending minors.

Lacking the mark?

When creating laws, and understanding it may very well be bypassed simply, ought to legislators have tried to impose a restriction on the identified straightforward strategies used to get across the laws? The reply, at the least for me, is sure. With out taking the laws one step additional and offering strong restrictions that make it complicated and troublesome to avoid, the regulation dangers being lowered to little greater than a symbolic gesture or an consciousness marketing campaign.

If we’re critical about defending minors on the web and limiting entry to dangerous content material to these of an acceptable age, then it in all probability requires a courageous re-think of the web and the way its customers may very well be recognized.