Porn Ban—New Threat For Millions Of Smartphone Users
Do not put yourself at risk.
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Republished on July 31 with stats showing the latest VPN surge and a stark government warning for those promoting the use of VPNs.
Here we go again. Millions of iPhone and Android users are suddenly at risk as the latest porn ban comes into effect. But it turns out the most serious threat to all those smartphone users is not the content, but the dangerous workarounds.
In the U.S., as state after state has passed porn ban legislation, users have turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) to maintain their adult content fix. These apps tunnel web traffic via remote servers. And if those servers are located in a different state or country, the porn site thinks the phone is there as well. The porn ban is bypassed.
Now the U.K. has enacted its own version of this leaky, pointless legislation, resulting in VPNs suddenly dominating app download charts. One app developer told BBC News, “it had seen an 1,800% spike in downloads” and many others have experienced the same.
Similar surges have been seen in the U.S. as each new ban comes into effect. The reality is that the bans or requirement for age verification — which amount to the same when users don’t want to associate real-world identifies with porn sites — do not work. Much worse though, these countermeasures are dangerous and are putting millions at risk.
To run a VPN, a developer needs to operate expensive infrastructure — the servers and network capacity to route traffic between devices and websites. Good VPNs offer a menu of locations, enabling users to pick the country or state where they will seem to be.
Porn sites take your IP address at face value. If there’s a ban or restriction in your location but your IP address suggests you’re somewhere else, you will be granted access. It would be very easy for the websites to check if you’re using a VPN. A clash between your IP address and your browser fingerprints for example. But they don’t.
The risk is that users don’t need a complex, fully-featured VPN to beat the bans. Any app will do. And China’s free app industry is happy to oblige. Using a free VPN without good security and data protection is very much worse than using no app at all.
Researchers have even found many free VPNs are linked to the Chinese government and its military. The Tech Transparency Project warns “millions of Americans have downloaded apps that secretly route their internet traffic through Chinese companies.”
Top10VPN’s Simon Migliano says this means “the risks are too great,” and “in light of these findings, I strongly urge users to avoid Chinese-owned VPNs altogether.”
You should actually avoid any free VPN. Either use one you subscribe to, or one from a bluechip provider which is an add-on to its other services. As BeyondTrust’s James Maude points out, “if you aren’t paying for a product, you are the product; these VPN services are a perfect example of the hidden costs of free apps.”
My advice on VPNs is simple:
- Only install VPNs from Google’s Play Store or Apple’s App Store
- Only use paid VPNs on a clear monthly or annual subscription for a sensible amount, never use a VPN with obfuscated in-app purchases
- Only use VPNs from recognized developers that you can easily find on mainstream websites, and never any that operate out of China
- Always ensure Play Protect is enabled on Android, and never disable or pause Play Protect to install a VPN that has been flagged as high-risk.
Meanwhile, the latest porn ban has driven a similar surge in VPN demand in the U.K. as we have seen before in the U.S. vpnMentor says it has observed “a staggering and steady increase rate that reached its peak at 6,430% following the enactment of the law. It remained as such for almost two hours before it started dropping at the end of the day but with spikes of 900% up to 4000% the following days.”
The team says it has also noticed that “since the implementation of the Online Safety Act, five VPN providers have reached the top 10 most downloaded apps from Apple’s App Store in the U.K. Moreover, Yoti (OnlyFans and Instagram’s third-party age-verification software) is ranking at 5th place at the time of writing.”
vpnMentor echoes other warnings on the surge in VPN demand. “Throughout the years, we’ve been covering different incidents that highlight the dangers of using unreliable VPN services. For instance, VPN-related data breaches have exposed hundreds of millions of records of sensitive information, such as email addresses, passwords, payment details, and personal device data.”
And this isn’t isolated to the U.S. and U.K. “Our cybersecurity team observed a 874% VPN demand surge in France after Aylo’s Pornhub, geo-blocked French IP addresses.”
The U.K. may not be as open-minded about this as others, warning “platforms have a clear responsibility to prevent children from bypassing safety protections. This includes blocking content that promotes VPNs or other workarounds specifically aimed at young users. Where platforms deliberately target U.K. children and promote VPN use, they could face enforcement action, including significant financial penalties.”