New Porn Ban Threat—Millions Of iPhone, iPad, Android Users Now At Risk

We live in interesting times. While the cyber threat landscape is quickly worsening, driven by new AI-fueled attacks, we are also seeing new U.S. restrictions on wildly popular platforms changing user behaviors. “It is crucial to recognize the broader implications these measures have on privacy, free speech, and access to information,” EFF warns, as millions of Americans look to bypass legal content restrictions and make sure their various fixes remain uninterrupted. And now there’s a dangerous and surprising new threat to tens of millions of American device users, and it’s surging.

In Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and other “dark” countries restricting internet freedoms by default, users have always turned to VPNs to tunnel their way out of the darkness. Freedom House warns that in 2024 “global internet freedom declined for the 14th consecutive year,” with dire implications for election manipulation, freedom of expression and human rights. But even trivial restrictions are driving users to adopt the same means of escape. We saw that with tens of millions of American TikTok users turning to VPNs (unsuccessfully) to beat the short-lived shutdown, and the same with tens of millions of Americans bypassing statewide porn restrictions (successfully) as age verification laws come into effect.

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In a new report shared exclusively here ahead of publication, vpnMentor has collated the most recent data on America’s porn traffic and the surge in VPN usage. “The data shows how age verification laws, geo-blocking, and user behavior are shaping online privacy and content access,” the team says. “By analyzing VPN usage and traffic patterns, we gain insight into the evolving digital landscape and its implications for users.”

The surprising news is that Americans are routing their traffic through international servers to bypass state restrictions on porn — not just routing through more liberal states as had been assumed. “While Pornhub has experienced a loss of 15 million visits from the USA,” vpnMentor says, “most likely due to the geo-blocking of 18 states, it has gained over 150 million visits globally. Mexico emerged as a significant source of traffic, purportedly driving 39 million users to the adult website in December 2024. This shift in user behavior points to the possibility that individuals from blocked states may not only be resorting to VPNs, but they may also be using IPs from other countries (like Mexico) to access the platform.”

Pornhub is by some margin the most popular adult site, with some 500 million more visits than its nearest competitor. Its largest market is the U.S. — again by some margin — and most users (85%) access the site from a mobile device. “The use of VPNs has become a popular workaround for individuals seeking unrestricted access to online content,” the report says. “Despite the geo-blocking measures, Pornhub's traffic reached an all-time high, surpassing 1.8 billion visits by late 2024.”

vpnMentor has seen VPN demand surge 1150% in Florida, 1060% in Oklahoma, 508% in Virgina and 542% in Alabama, amongst other states. We saw the same spikes over the weekend with frustrated TikTok traffic. On Saturday night, as the shutdown began, Top10VPN told me the surge in VPN demand in the U.S. was as high as 827%, “a really significant increase as VPNs are already very popular in the U.S., so it takes a lot to move the needle like this.”

Rerouting traffic outside the U.S. is an issue because it puts the security of all those American users at risk. If all those users are trusting bluechip, paid VPNs from reputable developers then the issue is mitigated. But most are likely not. Free VPNs are high-risk, and this international rerouting makes the problem worse.

vpnMentor warns that the dangers of using such VPNs include “data breaches that have exposed hundreds of millions of records of sensitive information such as email addresses, passwords, payment details, and personal device data. Furthermore, the leak of over a billion records from supposedly ‘no-logs’ VPNs emphasize the vulnerabilities associated with inadequate privacy measures. Leaked data containing geolocation details and unique identifiers raises concerns about identity theft and unauthorized access to personal information. The exposure of such confidential data can have severe repercussions, including identity theft, financial fraud, unauthorized surveillance, spam, phishing attempts, unauthorized approximate geographic location, DoS attacks, and more.”

“A VPN should not be seen as a tool for anonymity,” EFF says, warning that this is a high-risk solution to the age verification problem. “While it can protect your location from some companies, a disreputable VPN service might deliberately collect personal information or other valuable data. There are many other ways companies may track you while you use a VPN, including GPS, web cookies, mobile ad IDs, tracking pixels, or fingerprinting.”

In this there is another parallel with the current TikTok furor. While TikTok traffic dropped on Sunday, traffic from American devices to other Chinese social media platforms continued to surge. This is an unprecedented threat. While TikTok has been the subject of much criticism and concern, it has also been subject to significant scrutiny and has changed its U.S. operation accordingly. None of that is true for these other platforms.

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Even the industry is urging caution. ExprtessVPN’s Lauren Hendry Parsons, who is also co-chair of the VPN Trust Initiative, told me “enforcing age verification systems places a burden on companies that are currently ill-equipped to protect sensitive consumer data—potentially leading to scandals of the scale of the Ashley Madison data breach in 2015. Age verification systems collect a ton of data – such as government IDs, facial biometrics and entire browser histories – which present a goldmine for bad actors to try and target... When legislators restrict consumer access to online services, it doesn’t mean that people suddenly lose interest in those sites and platforms.”

TikTok has secured a 75-day grace period to manage its way out of the U.S. ban, subject to potential legal challenges; the prospect of a ban is still firmly on the table and there’s every chance this could be extended to other Chinese platforms as well. Meanwhile, states continue to explore restrictions on access to content. TechDirt reports that “41% of Americans live under age verification laws targeting porn.” The scourge of dangerous VPNs is not going away — be careful.