- On September 11, 2025, legislators in Michigan proposed a bill to completely prohibit adult content
- The use of VPN is also at risk, since Internet service providers would be forced to “monitor and block known choice tools”
- This occurs when people increasingly resort to VPN applications to avoid mandatory age verification verifications
The use of VPN is at risk for people in Michigan after becoming the objective of legislators.
On September 11, 2025, six republican representatives of Michigan proposed a bill to completely prohibit the distribution of adult content material, representations of transgender people and VPN.
According to the new rules, Internet service providers could be forced to “monitor and block known elusion tools”, with fines of up to $ 500.00 for not complying. In addition, “the promotion or sale of choice tools to access the prohibited material” is also prohibited in the state.
While the proposal is the most significant so far, it certainly does not happen in a vacuum. People inside and outside the United States have resorted more and more to the best VPN services in an attempt to avoid mandatory mandatory age verification controls.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the commissioner of England for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has considered VPN as “a lagoon that needs to close” and has asked the government to prevent children from using VPN to avoid age controls in places only for adults.
Michigan proposal: what we know so far
Mainly sponsored by Republican Josh Schriver, bill 4938 of the Chamber, or simply the “Public moral anti -corruption law”, seeks to prohibit sharing, distributing, selling or hosting “certain material” on the Internet.
The objectives of the bill include content only for adults in all its forms, from video and audio to magazine, content generated by AI and even manga, as well as any representation or description of trans people.
Contrary to similar laws of content for American adults that have already been applied in some states, Michigan’s proposals would prohibit this material for all Internet users, not only for minors.
Crucially, all Internet service providers operate in the State would also be required to detect and block connections from choice tools.
Legislators define them as “any software, hardware or service designed to avoid internet filtering mechanisms or content restrictions, including virtual private networks (VPN), proxy servers and encrypted tunnel methods to evade content restrictions.”
The proposal also prohibits both the promotion and sale of eludance tools to access the prohibited online content. A provision that resembles the law that Russia enforced in March 2024 to criminalize the propagation of information about ways to avoid Internet restrictions.
The risk of prohibiting VPNs
A virtual private network (VPN) is the security software that figure the Internet connections while falsifying the real IP address of the user. Both skills can help both people and companies to increase their privacy and security online minimizing the traces of data they leave on the Internet.
Specifically, the VPN work by creating a safe connection between their device and another location on the Internet. They mask their IP address and encrypt data that are transmitted to and from their device, so that it is impossible for third parties to intercept or track their activities.
In addition, IP’s fright can also make users look as if they are sailing from a completely different country.
Always invasive data collection and an increase in cyber attacks are making the VPN a necessary tool today. These applications help people recover the agency on their privacy and online safety, either to protect their device when connecting to a public Wi-Fi or accessing geo-restrient services when traveling abroad.
A VPN prohibition made in the US.
In addition, if the bill proposed to Michigan happens in its current form, it could also establish a legal precedent for other states or nations to follow. This can give even more taxes to the tastes of China, Russia, Iran, Myanmar or Venezuela to further reinforce their repression of VPN.
