Utah just passed the first US law targeting VPN use for age verification

Utah is enforcing a first-in-the-nation age-verification law on May 6 that still treats users as in-state based on physical location, even if they use a VPN or proxy.

The law also bars sites with substantial harmful content from encouraging VPN use to bypass age checks, raising compliance pressure on adult sites and search engines.

Critics including VPN providers and privacy advocates warn it could lead to blocking VPN traffic, intrusive global age verification, and weaker online privacy protections.