A growing wave of laws on both sides of the Atlantic is reshaping how people access adult websites online — and driving millions of users toward Virtual Private Networks to preserve their anonymity. To keep minors from viewing “harmful” adult material, states such as Texas and Louisiana passed laws requiring platforms like Pornhub to verify user identities. What began as a handful of state measures has since expanded dramatically and survived a landmark test at the U.S. Supreme Court.
All of these steps depend on internet platforms gathering official identification documents or putting external age-verification systems in place. But that kind of verification screens every visitor, not just children. Adult users who previously enjoyed a degree of anonymity find the prospect unsettling — the idea that their browsing history and personal information could be linked and easily accessed in one place.
Critics also warn the laws could be abused. They worry lawmakers may construe “adult” content broadly, potentially making material by LGBTQ+ creators or members of marginalized communities harder to reach and cutting vulnerable youth off from online support systems.
The Supreme Court changes the legal landscape
For years, opponents argued these laws were likely unconstitutional, pointing to past rulings that struck down similar restrictions as too sweeping a burden on adults. That calculus changed on June 27, 2025, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton. In a 6–3 ruling, the Court upheld Texas’s H.B. 1181, which requires commercial websites whose content is more than one-third “sexual material harmful to minors” to verify that visitors are 18 or older.
Rather than applying the strict scrutiny that had doomed earlier laws, the Court used intermediate scrutiny and concluded that any burden on adults is merely incidental, writing that adults have “no First Amendment right to avoid age verification” for content that is obscene to minors. The decision was a turning point: by the time it came down, roughly two dozen states had already adopted similar age-verification laws, and the ruling cleared the way for more. Civil-liberties groups condemned it. The American Civil Liberties Union called it a departure from decades of precedent, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned the laws would “block adults from accessing lawful speech, curtail their ability to be anonymous, and jeopardize their data security and privacy.”
How VPNs are being used
The effect on VPN demand has been striking. Top10 VPN’s Head of Research, Simon Migliano, documented that wherever U.S. lawmakers imposed age verification on adult content, demand for VPNs spiked in lockstep. In one extreme case, he reported demand jumped 847% in Utah on the day that state’s law took effect.
Virtual Private Networks have served as a kind of digital mask since the 1990s, hiding a user’s real location and scrambling their data. The technology lets people get around geo-restrictions to reach shows and sporting events unavailable in their area, and it has long been an essential tool for activists, journalists, and whistleblowers operating under repressive regimes.
“A VPN is an effective tool for circumventing any kind of internet censorship, as it allows users to access the restricted content via an IP address from a location under a different jurisdiction from their own,” Migliano noted.
Andre Slonopas, a cybersecurity leader at American Public University and American Military University, emphasizes what the technology empowers users to do rather than the institutions behind it. He argues VPNs let people access the internet anonymously from anywhere, becoming “borderless citizens” of the web. “This is an unprecedented opportunity to hear other ideas, opinions, learn about worldviews and connect with humans on a different level,” Slonopas stated.
Samir Jain, Vice President of Policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, says VPNs have long been used to bypass content restrictions abroad, but Americans are increasingly turning to them to get around similar restrictions at home. Jain — whose group filed a brief in the Texas case — notes that requiring a government ID fundamentally changes the equation. “If you provide a government ID to prove your age, you are in effect no longer anonymous,” he said. “If people no longer feel like they can [access information anonymously], that infringes on their First Amendment expression right.”
ExpressVPN Privacy Advocate Lauren Hendry Parsons agreed. “We know that when legislators restrict consumer access to services like porn, citizens still find a way to access it,” she said. “There is absolutely a middle ground to be found that leans on third-party cooperation instead of limiting consumer rights.”
The UK ignites a record-breaking VPN boom
If the U.S. laws lit the fuse, the United Kingdom set off the explosion. On July 25, 2025, age-verification requirements under the UK’s Online Safety Act took effect, forcing platforms hosting adult content to confirm users are over 18 through methods such as photo ID, credit-card checks, or facial age estimation. Enforcement falls to the regulator Ofcom, which can fine non-compliant companies up to 10 percent of their global revenue.
The public response was immediate and enormous. Proton VPN reported UK signups surged more than 1,400% within hours of the law taking effect — a spike the company said was sustained, and far larger than an earlier surge in June after Pornhub blocked access in France over that country’s 2024 age-verification law. Proton later cited sustained increases as high as 1,800%, while NordVPN confirmed a roughly 1,000% jump in UK purchases over the same period. For a stretch, VPN apps occupied half of the top ten free apps in the UK App Store.
The numbers tell a clear story of both compliance and circumvention. According to Ofcom, traffic to the ten most-visited UK pornography services settled at a lower level after July 25, with Pornhub seeing roughly a 31% drop in unique visitors in a single month. At the same time, VPN usage more than doubled — rising from about 650,000 daily users before the law to a peak of over 1.4 million in mid-August 2025, before gradually easing to around 900,000 by November. Using a VPN to bypass the checks is not itself illegal for individual users, though Ofcom has barred adult platforms from endorsing VPNs as a workaround.
What platforms are doing in response
Faced with steep penalties, many adult sites have chosen to block users entirely rather than collect sensitive data. When Texas’s law took effect, Pornhub — the dominant adult video platform — cut off access for users in the state, releasing a statement opposing what it called a “rushed, reckless, and dangerous” approach, and it has similarly restricted access in numerous other states that mandate age verification. In the UK, by contrast, Pornhub and thousands of other sites rolled out verification rather than withdraw from the market; Ofcom has said more than 6,000 adult sites adopted age checks.
Experts say platforms are wary not only of fines but of the security risk in amassing identity data. “Age verification systems collect a huge amount of data, not only the personal information from each ID but also a record of each and every authentication made — essentially any site you access that features adult content,” Hendry Parsons said. “Combined with the data profiling social media companies create about their users, this treasure trove of personal information is a perfect target for bad actors.”
A VPN boom could bring new scrutiny
The mass migration to VPNs may carry its own risks. The very visibility of users openly relying on the tools to sidestep new laws could prompt lawmakers to target the technology itself. Some anti-porn laws, such as Utah’s, already forbid platforms from helping minors circumvent access restrictions, and digital-rights advocates have long worried that broad proposals to ban foreign apps could sweep in VPNs as well. In the UK, the scale of the surge has prompted officials to review whether tighter rules are needed.
Samir Jain of the Center for Democracy and Technology acknowledges those concerns but argues that new legislation criminalizing or regulating VPN use could prove both ineffective and constitutionally vulnerable, potentially setting up further legal disputes. “There are a lot of legitimate reasons to use VPNs to protect your privacy and anonymity,” Jain concluded.
For more on digital rights and online policy, explore The AEGIS Alliance’s Tech News coverage. The full Supreme Court opinion in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton is available from the U.S. Supreme Court.
