Where Florida’s new law falls short

Children On-line

Among the state’s new youngster security legislation will be simply circumvented. Ought to it have gone additional?

14 Jan 2025
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4 min. learn

Florida’s state legislators just lately handed a brand new invoice aimed 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 prompted a surge of individuals looking for ‘VPN’ (Digital Personal Community), in accordance with Google Trends. There’s additionally a flurry of articles that specify find out how to circumvent the requirement by utilizing a VPN to masks your location and look like outdoors of Florida. Many of those articles – which have been revealed particularly after a number of main grownup web sites blocked the entire state from access in response to the legislation – are sponsored or include affiliate hyperlinks to obtain and buy VPN software program and companies.

Is that this all stunning? No. VPN expertise has lengthy been a well-liked instrument 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 similar to age verification signifies that all customers, no matter age, must be age verified, and thus anybody not wishing to be recognized in any means when searching adult-based content material will search for alternate strategies to entry content material.

The Florida laws does, in some kind, restrict the chance of ‘unintended searching’ of content material that could be dangerous, since entry to such content material shall be behind the ‘age verification wall’, versus a publicly accessible homepage. I’m positive industrial firms who monetize by offering grownup content material will wish to keep away from the eye of legislation 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 accessible with out industrial intent and is hosted in nations the place taking authorized motion from Florida may be too advanced, or close to unimaginable.

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 might be circumvented simply by utilizing a VPN – not less than 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 embody companies that present the power to virtualize your location to someplace outdoors of Florida.

VPN expertise supplies cybersecurity advantages, significantly when connecting over public networks, however its performance is commonly misunderstood. The belief that the connection turns into personal is simply true partially. When utilizing a VPN, the connection is simply encrypted between the system and the VPN server; from this server to the meant vacation spot, the connection is not within the encrypted tunnel and is similar as any customary connection between the browser and the vacation spot webserver.

VPN suppliers nonetheless have visibility into key particulars: they know the placement of the system, through its IP handle, and the meant vacation spot of the request. Utilizing easy internet 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 identical strategy, as they block grownup content material by default until customers choose in, thereby defending minors.

Lacking the mark?

When creating laws, and understanding it might be bypassed simply, ought to legislators have tried to impose a restriction on the recognized simple strategies used to get across the laws? The reply, not less than for me, is sure. With out taking the laws one step additional and offering sturdy restrictions that make it advanced and troublesome to avoid, the legislation dangers being diminished 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 appropriate age, then it most likely requires a courageous re-think of the web and the way its customers might be recognized.