Utah becomes first state to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs — law goes into effect, designed to prevent bypassing age checks

Utah has put its Online Age Verification Amendments into effect, becoming the first U.S. state to explicitly address VPN and proxy use in age-check enforcement.

The law treats physically present users as Utah users even if they hide their location, and bars sites from instructing visitors how to use VPNs to bypass verification.

Supporters say it strengthens age safeguards, while critics warn it is hard to enforce and could push websites to overblock or demand broader identity checks.

The change raises new privacy and access concerns for legitimate VPN users and could influence similar debates in other states and countries.