A New Bill Aims to Ban Both Adult Content Online and VPN Use. Could It Work?

CNET ^ | October 20, 2025 | Tyler Lacoma

[PittsburghAfterDark]

On Sept. 11, Michigan representatives proposed an internet content ban bill unlike any of the others we've seen: This particularly far-reaching legislation would ban not only many types of online content, but also the ability to legally use any VPN.

The bill, called the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act and advanced by six Republican representatives, would ban a wide variety of adult content online, ranging from ASMR and adult manga to AI content and any depiction of transgender people. It also seeks to ban all use of VPNs, foreign or US-produced.

VPNs (virtual private networks) are suites of software often used as workarounds to avoid similar bans that have passed in states like Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as the UK. They can be purchased with subscriptions or downloaded, and are built into some browsers and Wi-Fi routers as well.

But Michigan's bill would charge internet service providers with detecting and blocking VPN use, as well as banning the sale of VPNs in the state. Associated fines would be up to $500,000.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

I really cannot stand the stupidity of politicians, especially Republican politicians, not knowing the consequences of what they propose.

No one is losing any sleep over someone eating strawberries on a close up video with a high gain microphone nearby.

I'm far more worried about not having VPN access and what the government could do because of that then someone watching Brazillian fart porn (South Park reference, does such a thing even exist???)

[Kleon]

I would also include a ban on “bot torrent” which is used to spread a lot of this illegal material.

[Tell It Right]

Banning VPN’s does sound scary. Both from the free speech aspect, especially with the Dims wanting to ban “misinformation”, and from wanting to engage in financial transactions with less chance of being hacked.

[Salman]

Banning VPS will hurt the financial industry.

Or will the big players be exempt.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

No more German scheisse videos? (Another South Park reference.)

[Zathras]

I’m pretty sure you can’t ban VPNs.

[Frank Drebin]

They don’t give one damn about the adult part...they are after the VPN.

[BikerJoe]

I'm far more worried about not having VPN access and what the government could do because of that

Agreed. Plus the little issue of VPNs being ubiquitous in the corporate security world, and for industrial equipment, and, and, and...

Anybody proposing this doesn't have a CLUE about the real-world consequences.

[ro_dreaming]

(South Park reference, does such a thing even exist???)

Rule 34, or Rule 34(a), if you think of it, then, at some point, porn exists of it.

[Ge0ffrey]

Pornography is the scourge of the West. It is singularly responsible for the breakdown of family and morality. It needs to be banished from our homes as it was banished from 42nd Street in Manhattan.

[nuke_road_warrior]

Government censorship is an anathema to the Constitution whether from the left or the right. Just exactly who gets to determine what is “adult” content? I suspect these “defenders of public morals” would find leftist ideas as offensive as the leftists find MAGA philosophy. Of course banning VPNs would, in their little pea brains, prevent circumvention of their ban on “adult” content as they see it.

[libertylover]

I hate it when they use non-common acronyms and don’t define their meaning.

[larrytown]

This is a proposed bill?

So, it’s just posturing by some political faction in order to be used as a litmus test for certain voting group.

The corporate universe that exists on VPN’s would destroy any attempt to try to push this idiocy.

This isn’t even good for ‘government conspiracy’ fans, as it’s just too stupid to be taken seriously.

[SPDSHDW]

Communism and Feminism have done more to damage the Family then Porn.

Porn usage is a symptom of all the other cultural rot.

[napscoordinator]

Perhaps. But what is next. Big government is not great. And the fact republicans are the big brothers is concerning considering what they will ban next.

[FreedomPoster]

They’ll take my VPN software from my cold dead fingers.

And if it didn’t exist before South Park referenced it, someone went out and made some, almost certainly, sadly.

Just damn.

[Bikkuri]

"Communism and Feminism have done more to damage the Family then than Porn."

[jonatron]

They’re only using porno as an excuse for grabbing power.

[MayflowerMadam]

Terrible idea!!

Government overreach to the max.

[SPDSHDW]

Did a typo really twist your knickers that much to require a dedicated post to correct a single letter?