After the UK, France, and multiple US States, Italy has now enforced its mandatory age verification system.
Starting today, November 12, 2025, Italians must prove they are at least 18 years old to access websites displaying adult-only content.
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Age verification and VPNs − all you need to know
A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that encrypts users’ internet connections, while spoofing their real IP address by rerouting traffic via one of its international servers.
The latter skill is exactly the reason why VPNs have also become the perfect tool to bypass new mandatory age verification across the world. A reputation that has attracted increasingly more attention from lawmakers.
Wisconsin and Michigan went as far as to consider an obligation to block VPN traffic within the law. If it passes, the latter proposal would not only force internet service providers to monitor and block VPN connections, but also ban the promotion or sale of circumvention tools to access prohibited material. A bill that Proton, the company behind the popular Proton VPN product, defined as “a danger for the political discourse.”
At the same time, UK politicians have deemed this technology a “loophole that needs closing,” despite repeatedly saying that a VPN ban is off the cards.
As per AGCOM’s provisions, the only obligation regarding VPNs applies to all entities required by law to implement the age verification system, meaning the listed adult sites. These providers “must not promote or otherwise refer to any mechanism for circumventing age assurance systems.”
Whether the people using an age verification VPN are privacy-conscious users not willing to share their most sensitive details with a third party, or minors looking to evade age checks, is hard to know − most likely, a mix of both.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone using a VPN service to break the law or conduct illegal activities. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
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chiara.castro@futurenet.com (Chiara Castro)
