U.K. Age Verification Group Slammed for Apparent Anti-VPN Stance

LOS ANGELES—The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA), a trade group based in the United Kingdom with operations in the United States, seemed to come out in a recent Politico story in support of national governments tracking and potentially blocking web traffic from VPN users. Such a stance would ostensibly run counter to the AVPA's efforts to be an ally to the adult entertainment industry in its ongoing battle over age verification legislation that is designed by one-sided, far-right political interest groups looking to ultimately block legal porn sites. In the Politico story by Laurie Clarke, AVPA head Iain Corby is quoted as saying that "'the answer is obviously to either impose age assurance globally,' or for porn sites to begin detecting and blocking VPN traffic." Of course, as can be seen here, Clarke paraphrases Corby's remarks, which has led the association to argue that his comments were taken out of context by several adult industry activists. AVN published an analytical commentary by this author in September 2023 on AVPA's efforts to collaborate with adult industry stakeholders to counter censorial variations of age verification measures. Corby told AVN at the time that his organization's intention was simple and that “all we want to see [is] a level playing field.” Corby referred to balanced legislation that respected the rights of online pornography consumers who are of legal age to view adult content while upholding local child safety standards.  Much of this column was presented as a potential blueprint for how adult and age verification industry companies could work together through the primary trade organizations, AVPA, and the class of regional and international adult industry organizations. Mike Stabile, director of public affairs for the adult industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition, posted to his followers on X that Corby's association "is now calling for governments to track and block VPN traffic, a hallmark of authoritarian regimes." Clarke mentions the blocking of VPNs as "a hallmark of autocratic regimes" in the Politico article. Stabile was additionally quoted in Clarke's report with an oft-cited refrain he makes: "Adult content is the canary in the coal mine of free speech, and it always has been." "That’s not a fair representation of our comments," AVPA replied to Stabile's post on X. "We’ve only pointed out that laws requiring age verification do not include exceptions if children access pornography using a VPN. The sites will still be at risk from regulators and/or private lawsuits." The association added: "We don’t oppose the use of VPNs. They are sensible security and privacy tools." Corby did not return AVN's request for comment by publication time. It will be posted upon response. The Politico article covered the regulatory process Ofcom is undergoing to implement age verification requirements outlined in the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act. Ofcom is still conducting consultations on how to best enforce the act. Blocking VPNs is widely used in totalitarian states, including North Korea and Belarus. VPNs are not outlawed in countries like China, Iran, Russia and Turkey, among others, but their use is heavily monitored and regulated by regional and central governments. Pornography is entirely outlawed in China, North Korea and other aforementioned countries.