Tag Archives: children

Banning VPNs

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/12/banning-vpns.html

This is crazy. Lawmakers in several US states are contemplating banning VPNs, because…think of the children!

As of this writing, Wisconsin lawmakers are escalating their war on privacy by targeting VPNs in the name of “protecting children” in A.B. 105/S.B. 130. It’s an age verification bill that requires all websites distributing material that could conceivably be deemed “sexual content” to both implement an age verification system and also to block the access of users connected via VPN. The bill seeks to broadly expand the definition of materials that are “harmful to minors” beyond the type of speech that states can prohibit minors from accessing­ potentially encompassing things like depictions and discussions of human anatomy, sexuality, and reproduction.

The EFF link explains why this is a terrible idea.

Child Exploitation and the Crypto Wars

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/10/child-exploitation-and-the-crypto-wars.html

Susan Landau published an excellent essay on the current justification for the government breaking end-to-end-encryption: child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). She puts the debate into historical context, discusses the problem of CSAE, and explains why breaking encryption isn’t the solution.

UK Government to Launch PR Campaign Undermining End-to-End Encryption

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/01/uk-government-to-launch-pr-campaign-undermining-end-to-end-encryption.html

Rolling Stone is reporting that the UK government has hired the M&C Saatchi advertising agency to launch an anti-encryption advertising campaign. Presumably they’ll lean heavily on the “think of the children!” rhetoric we’re seeing in this current wave of the crypto wars. The technical eavesdropping mechanisms have shifted to client-side scanning, which won’t actually help — but since that’s not really the point, it’s not argued on its merits.