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Porn bans are more dangerous than you think.<\/p>\n
getty<\/p>\n
Republished on June 28 with U.S. Supreme Court ruling on porn restrictions. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a new warning for smartphone users. Free apps with hundreds of millions of installs are now putting users, devices and data at risk. And this problem is about to get worse, with millions more certain to install those apps within weeks as a new porn ban goes into effect, putting more iPhone and Android users in danger.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking VPNs and a new report that says many of the top free apps on both Apple\u2019s App Store and Google\u2019s Play Store are secretly sending data to China<\/a>. Free VPNs are dangerous<\/a>, but two events have turned many of these apps into viral blockbusters.<\/p>\n The first was the short-lived TikTok ban in the U.S., which saw a VPN surge even if using VPNs did not actually solve the problem<\/a> \u2014 those apps are still on phones today. The second is ongoing and more widespread and is set for a new surge.<\/p>\n ForbesSamsung\u2019s Next Android Upgrade\u2014\u2018Better\u2019 Than Google\u2019s PixelBy Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n We\u2019re talking porn bans, with age and identity verification checks required to access the world\u2019s most popular websites. Multiple U.S. states have now jumped on the bandwagon, resulting in many U.S. users installing VPNs for the first time<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the Tech Transparency Project<\/a> warns, \u201cmillions of Americans have downloaded apps that secretly route their internet traffic through Chinese companies.\u201d And if the political push to introduce a national U.S. porn ban<\/a> is successful, this will get much worse.<\/p>\n VPNs \u2014 virtual private networks \u2014 route all online traffic to and from a device via a third-party server. The risk is that the wrong type of VPN is more dangerous than no VPN at all. And while users in plenty of places around the world cannot access the free internet without these location and identity masking tools \u2014 that\u2019s not the case anywhere in the U.S. At least not before these porn bans started to come into effect.<\/p>\n But unlike the TikTok ban, VPNs easily bypass porn restrictions, tricking the websites into thinking you\u2019re in a different location not subject to any bans or requiring any form of verification. But while it\u2019s easy to skirt the rules, you could be putting your device and your data at risk, sending all your traffic to a shady foreign server.<\/p>\n Now the U.K. is set to do the same. A month from now \u2014 on July 25 \u2014 it will mandate the same government approved age verification before users can access porn sites.<\/p>\n Per BBC News<\/a>, \u201cPornhub and a number of other major adult websites have confirmed they will introduce enhanced age checks for users from next month. Parent company Aylo says it is bringing in \u2018government approved age assurance methods\u2019 but has not yet revealed how it will require users to prove they are over 18.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.K.\u2019s controversial Online Safety Bill will \u201cbring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world,\u201d say the regulator charged with enforcing the new laws, warning that \u201crecent research indicated 8% of children aged 8-14 in the UK had visited an online porn site or app over a 28-day period.\u201d<\/p>\n Porn is more popular than ever on mobile devices, which are more at risk from free VPNs than other devices. It\u2019s all too easy to install a free app from even the official stores without asking how the app is being funded or who operates the service.<\/p>\n This situation is about to get worse, as the U.S. Supreme Court \u201cbans anyone under 18\u201d <\/a>from viewing pornography” in Texas, upholding one of the 17 state laws now in effect to mandate age verification using government issued ID before porn can be viewed.<\/p>\n Per Wired<\/a>, Friday\u2019s decision \u201ccould reshape the landscape of online privacy and free speech, the Supreme Court upheld in full the Texas age verification law \u2014 one of the first passed in the country \u2014 requiring many websites publishing pornographic content to check that all visitors are over 18,” ruling this does not restrict protected speech.<\/p>\n