Australia’s Next Target In The War On Kids Online: Your VPN

from the you’re-making-people-less-safe dept

We — and plenty of others — have been warning that the global rush to mandate age verification wouldn’t stop at “let’s make sure kids can’t see porn” or even just “keep kids off of social media.” It would inevitably expand into treating anonymity and privacy tools themselves as the enemy. Australia is now proving that in real time: Its eSafety regulator has gone from checking whether porn sites gate their content to treating VPN use — one of the best tools people have for protecting their privacy online — as a compliance problem to be stamped out.

Last month the VPN company Mullvad put out a blog post about how age verification would be the beginning of the end for a free internet. It’s a good read:

The correct term for age verification as it is implemented today is therefore identity verification. Given today’s internet infrastructure, it is unreasonable to assume that this information will not be shared through commercial agreements or with governments.

The consequence of introducing identity verification is therefore that freedom of information is restricted (you can no longer visit regulated websites anonymously) and that you can no longer post anonymously on social media. You cannot be certain that your criticism of the government will not be followed up by the authorities. You can no longer start a digital initiative on a social media platform aimed at gathering people to criticize an authority without facing a significant risk of consequences. Depending on the country you live in, this could even endanger your life. In its current form, social media identity verification removes important tools for activists in countries where criticizing those in power is dangerous.

Freedom of expression is threatened not only in a direct sense (you post something and then the police knock on your door), identity verification also creates a chilling effect. It becomes a cornerstone of censorship machinery in the sense that people begin to self-censor if they know that expressing opinions may have personal consequences. This is also something that changes over time. What is considered acceptable to post online is determined by whoever currently holds power. Different sides of politics often have different views on what constitutes harmful content. Just because what you post today is not considered inappropriate does not mean it will remain acceptable in the future.

Some can argue that they’re biased since they’re in the business of selling VPN service, though arguably, more age verification laws increase demand for VPNs. But, the reality is that as age verification laws spread, so too do the attacks on VPNs and the ridiculous and dangerous threats to somehow outlaw their usage.

The latest is in Australia, where their teen social media ban has been an abject failure. Have no fear, however, they’re going to just start targeting VPN usage. Of course, they’re not framing it as a response to the failure of their social media ban, but rather a response to adult content websites’ age verification being beaten by people using VPNs, because it’s always easier to start your attacks on privacy, security, and anonymity by blaming a more marginalized industry like adult content:

Nine in 10 of the most visited adult sites used by Australians now have age checks for users, according to the online safety regulator, but eSafety has said it will assess whether those sites are allowing users to bypass restrictions with virtual private networks (VPNs)….

But, of course, it’s not just about adult content. They’ll go after VPN usage for social media as well:

Similar to the expectations of the social media companies for the under-16s ban, eSafety said it was expected under the codes that sites “must take reasonable steps” to prevent workarounds like VPNs, and eSafety “will look at this when considering compliance”.

The sheer irony of an agency named “eSafety” claiming that VPN use was a “workaround” that must be blocked? VPNs provide way more safety than anything that the “eSafety” Commission has done regarding internet usage.

Age verification is surveillance. Full stop. And it’s increasingly being closely tied to law enforcement and governments. Tech policy expert Heather Burns recently pointed out that age verification providers were literally reporting people to law enforcement for the crime of… using an alternative OS. As she notes:

age verification providers now hold themselves to be delegated law enforcement and extensions of the judiciary, using the guise of age verification for child safety but for reasons which have nothing to do with it.

This should be a concern to everyone. Hell, it’s getting so bad that the dude who runs the trade association for age verification providers is talking about punishing parents for helping their kids get around age checks.

Iain Corby: Yeah, just briefly to add, I think there is a distinction here between when we just accept the parent’s word for the child’s age and when services need to get an independent verification of that age. We do know, this was mentioned earlier, that often, parents are complicit in helping their kids to access services which are age-limited when they shouldn’t be accessing those services. So, sometimes you will need to do an independent age verification rather than simply relying on a parental attestation. So, it’s sort of one step up from self-declaration, but it’s not an independent view of the age of that user.

So Australia is just confirming the point privacy folks have been screaming about for years: age verification is inherently an attack on privacy and security. It will absolutely be used to remove anonymity, decrease security, enhance law enforcement surveillance, and, as the last quote shows, diminish even parental decision-making regarding our children.

Age verification was never going to stop at the age gate. VPNs are just the next thing on the list. Other user empowerment tools (Tor? encrypted DNS?) will be next. There’s simply no version of this that ends with your privacy intact.

Filed Under: age gates, age verification, australia, banning vpns, esafety, privacy, surveillance, vpns