Porn Ban—New Threat For iPhone, iPad, Android Users

The U.S. clampdown on unrestricted online pornography escalated as 2025 began, with those in Florida losing access to the world’s most popular adult site on Jan. 1. Pornhub has campaigned against the requirement for age verification through government-issued ID, and along with other sites has demonstrated its strength of feeling by shutting down access from within the state rather than requesting ID.

Putting the politics aside, the raft of U.S. states that have jumped on this age verification bandwagon has triggered the kind of rush to VPNs normally only seen in war-torn, autocratic or heavily censored markets—Iran, Russia, China and North Korea, rather than Florida, Texas and South Carolina. VPNMentor told me they “detected a surge of 1150% in VPN demand [in Florida] in the first few hours” after the new law came into effect on January 1, which they describe as “staggering.”

This follows similar surges in other states: “Pornhub’s banning of Utah-based users caused a 967% spike in VPN demand… and last year, the passing of adult-site-related age restriction laws in Texas caused a surge in demand of 234% in the state.”

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Per TechDirt on Monday, “nearly 139 million U.S. residents live in states with age verification laws on the books that specifically target adult entertainment platforms.” Banning access to content—whether completely or absent personally identifiable information—is a privacy minefield. As EFF warned again last week, “mandatory age verification tools are surveillance systems that threaten everyone’s rights to speech and privacy, and introduce more harm than they seek to combat.”

VPNs enable users to mask their locations—pretending to be somewhere they’re not, by routing their web traffic via a server in that different place. With a click or a tap, a user stops presenting as being in Florida and is suddenly transported to New York or Boston—or even Singapore or London. As Cybernews says, “a VPN is the most reliable method to bypass these restrictions,” while Gizmodo reports that “Adults in Florida Will Use a VPN Starting January 1st.”

But before you download and install a VPN promising to make these restrictions vanish, you need to be careful—you might be taking a very serious risk with your data and your device. And that risk is especially acute for those using mobile devices—iPhones, iPads and Androids, which are plagued with cheap and nasty VPNs that might help mask your location but at a considerable, hidden cost.

Most U.S. citizens have little if any need for a VPN. Web traffic is secure and the risk of public Wi-Fi is largely overblown—as long as you’re not sending sensitive, unencrypted content. There’s little need to beware you’re betraying your location by way of your IP address or the identity of the websites you are visiting. At least not for most users. But with 3 billion monthly visits to Pornhub’s website from the U.S., the new restrictions suddenly change everything.

Last month, the U.S. cyber defense agency warned against the use of personal VPNs, that they “simply shift residual risks from your ISP to the VPN provider, often increasing the attack surface.”

These risks are especially prevalent on mobile devices serviced by app stores, where a VPN industry has surged in recent years. In November, Kaspersky warned that dangerous free VPNs installs were soaring in Q3, “increasing by 2.5 times compared to Q2 globally. These apps were malware or programs that could be potentially used by malicious actors. This surge has continued into Q4.”

Meanwhile, specialist website Top10VPN tested the leading free VPNs on Google’s Play Store, and found that 10% of the apps “suffered encryption failures,” almost 90% “suffered some kind of leak,” and three-quarters “shared personal data with third parties,” while 20% were flagged as malware.

So, for those new to VPNs here are some golden rules to make sure you stay safe:

1. Only install VPNs from the Play Store or App Store
2. Only use paid VPNs on an open subscription for a sensible amount, never with obfuscated in-app purchases
3. Only use VPNs from well-known developers that you can easily research and find on mainstream websites, and never from any based in China
4. Always ensure Play Protect is enabled if you’re using Android, and never disable or pause Play Protect to install a VPN it flags as risky
5. When Android 15’s new live threat detection flags an app, take action

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I’m not advocating for users to circumvent new regulations, but I am urging users to ensure they don’t take on bigger risks that they’re resolving. As Kaspersky warns, “there is a growing demand for VPN apps… Users tend to believe that if they find a VPN app in an official store, like Google Play, it is safe and can be used to get content that is originally unavailable at their location. And they think it is even better if this VPN service is free! However, this often ends up being a trap.”