People living under repressive governments that impose extensive internet censorship—like China, Russia, and Iran—have long relied on circumvention tools like VPNs and other technologies to maintain anonymity and access blocked content. But as countries that have long claimed to champion the open internet and access to information, like the United States, begin considering or adopting age verification laws meant to protect children, the boundaries for protecting digital rights online quickly become extremely murky.
“There will be a large number of people who are using circumvention tech for a range of reasons” to get around age verification laws, the ACLU’s Kahn Gillmor says. “So then as a government you’re in a situation where either you’re obliging the websites to do this on everyone globally, that way legal jurisdiction isn’t what matters, or you’re encouraging people to use workarounds—which then ultimately puts you in the position of being opposed to censorship-circumvention tools.” {read}