Posted on by RickStringer

The Real Cost of VPN Bans

Over the last few months, a troubling trend has cropped up in state legislatures—including right here in Michigan. Lawmakers are proposing bills that would effectively ban or cripple the use of VPNs, the privacy tools millions of people rely on every day. The stated goal is to “protect children” from harmful content.

That’s a goal every reasonable person supports.

But the methods being proposed show a serious misunderstanding of how the internet works—and they risk doing far more harm than good.

Before we let policymakers break the tools that protect our privacy, security, and even our livelihoods, we need to talk about what’s happening and why it matters.

Poster showing a VPN shield cracked by a gavel labeled “State Bills,” with icons for work, security, and family beneath it and the text “VPN Bans Break More Than They Fix.”

What’s Going On in Wisconsin and Michigan

Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s bill (A.B. 105 / S.B. 130) requires websites offering anything that might be considered sexual content to:

  1. Implement age verification, and
  2. Block access for all VPN users in Wisconsin.

Here’s the problem:

There’s no way for a website to reliably detect “Wisconsin VPN users” versus VPN users from anywhere else. If Wisconsin forces sites to block VPNs, most sites will simply block all VPN traffic nationwide—or stop serving Wisconsin entirely.

VPN users lose.

Remote workers lose.

Journalists, activists, and vulnerable people lose.

All because a legislature doesn’t understand how routing and encryption work.

Michigan

Michigan has been weighing a similar proposal, framed as an adult-content bill—but with language that would make ISPs liable if they “enable circumvention tools” like VPNs.

What do you do if your ISP could be punished because you used a VPN?

Simple: the ISP blocks VPN traffic.

Not just for adult sites—for everything.

Remote work? Tough.

Secure client data? Not possible.

Privacy for everyday citizens? Gone.

The intention may be to keep minors away from explicit content, but the real outcome is a de facto state-level ban on encryption tools that everyday people depend on.

VPNs Aren’t a Loophole—They’re a Lifeline

Lawmakers keep talking about VPNs like they’re some shady way to sneak around the rules.

In reality, VPNs are basic digital hygiene.

  • Businesses use them to secure remote employees
  • Universities use them to protect research and records
  • Medical professionals use them for patient confidentiality
  • Survivors of domestic abuse use them to hide their location
  • LGBTQ+ people in hostile environments rely on them for safety
  • Journalists and whistleblowers use them to stay alive
  • Normal citizens use them to prevent advertisers, stalkers, and data brokers from profiling them

This is not fringe technology.

This is core infrastructure—like seatbelts for your data.

Trying to ban VPNs because some minors might use them to bypass age restrictions is like banning curtains because someone could hide behind them.

You Cannot Secure Children by Making Everyone Less Safe

Here’s the heart of the matter:

Protecting children is important.

Breaking the privacy and security of millions of adults is not the way to do it.

There are ways to help kids stay safe online:

  • Parental controls built into devices
  • Filtered profiles for teens and younger kids
  • Open communication within families
  • Tools created by platforms themselves
  • Optional content restrictions
  • Screen time management
  • Education, not surveillance

But requiring adults to hand over government IDs to random websites—and then banning VPNs so people can’t protect their privacy—doesn’t protect anyone. It simply encourages data breaches, government overreach, and mass surveillance.

No parent I know wants the state to build a database of what their family watches online.

No ordinary adult wants to scan their driver’s license to look at legal content.

No business wants remote employees suddenly unable to log in securely.

We can keep children safe without turning private lives inside out.

The Technical Reality: VPN Bans Won’t Work

The bills assume a site can identify and block VPN users on a state-by-state basis.

It can’t.

VPNs route traffic through encrypted tunnels.

Users from ten different countries may emerge from the same VPN server.

Sites have two practical choices:

  1. Block all VPN users, everywhere.
  2. Shut down access to the state entirely.

That’s why digital-rights groups are warning that these laws could break remote work, break online privacy, and break basic internet functionality.

You don’t secure children by crippling the internet for everyone else.

The Dangerous Precedent

If a state can ban privacy tools to enforce morality laws, what comes next?

  • Banning VPNs to block political speech?
  • Blocking out-of-state news sites?
  • Tracking residents’ browsing habits?
  • Requiring ID for all “harmful” information, however that gets defined next session?

This is exactly the slippery slope countries like China, Russia, and Iran have taken—where blocking VPNs is step one toward broader censorship systems.

That is not the road we want to start down in the United States.

A Better Approach: Privacy and Protection Together

We can absolutely help parents and guardians keep minors away from material they shouldn’t see.

But we can do it without:

  • logging IDs
  • tracking everyone’s activity
  • dismantling remote work
  • exposing people to harassment
  • weakening cybersecurity
  • or restricting access to legal content for adults

Privacy does not have to disappear for protection to exist.

A healthy society needs both.

Where We Go From Here

If you live in Michigan or Wisconsin, this is the moment to reach out to your representatives and say:

“Protect children, absolutely.

But do not dismantle privacy tools.

Do not break the internet to solve a problem we can address in better ways.”

Groups like the EFF and Fight for the Future are already sounding the alarm, but lawmakers need to hear directly from the people who rely on these tools — people like us.

I use a VPN every day to protect my work, my clients, and my privacy. Many of you do too.

Privacy isn’t something only criminals want.

It’s something every adult deserves.

Further Reading & Sources

Official Bill Text

Here are direct links to the proposed state bills discussed in the post.

Wisconsin

These bills contain the requirement for websites to perform age verification and to block access to users connecting through VPNs.

Michigan

Michigan has had multiple proposals connected to age-verification and VPN restrictions.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Fight for the Future

  • Campaign Against VPN Restrictions (2025)
    https://www.fightforthefuture.org/
    (Look for their action page “Don’t Ban VPNs” which launched in response to these bills.)

News Coverage

TechRadar

PC Gamer

CyberNews

Yahoo News / Detroit Free Press syndication

Wired Magazine

  • “VPNs, Age Verification, and the Future of Online Privacy”
    https://www.wired.com/
    (Search “VPN age verification”—several Wired pieces explain why VPNs are essential to digital safety.)

Broader Context on Age Verification Laws

Tools for Parents (A Better Approach)

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