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Usage of the best VPNs has skyrocketed in Australia following the introduction of age verification laws in the country, and its social media ban for under-16s.
However, VPNs are often perceived to exist in something of a gray area when it comes to the law, and many people question whether they are legal at all.
VPNs are entirely legal in Australia
No beating around the bush: VPNs are legal in Australia. There are no limitations on which VPNs you are allowed to use, and connecting to a VPN does not incriminate you in any way.
What's more, having a VPN installed is not considered evidence for any wrongdoing, and in the eyes of the law, using a VPN does not make you appear more "guilty."
However, it's worth noting that while VPNs aren't illegal, using them can contravene the terms of service of private companies. For example, most streaming sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney Plus explicitly state that using a VPN is not allowed when streaming their shows.
For example, Amazon Prime Video states, in its Terms of Use, that "you may not use any technology or technique to obscure or disguise your location." Disney Plus has identical wording in its Subscriber Agreement.
By using a VPN for streaming sites you're not breaking the law, but it's worth being aware that it's technically against the rules.
It's also worth noting that despite the streaming sites' best efforts to stop VPN users, we have never heard any reports of any accounts being canceled due to VPN usage.
VPNs don’t make illegal activity legal
While VPNs themselves are perfectly legal to buy, install, and use, participating in illegal activity while connected to a VPN is still illegal. Just because it's harder for this activity to be linked back to you doesn't change the letter of the law.
For example, a common use-case is to use a VPN for torrenting. Not all torrenting is illegal. However, if you were to connect to your VPN, download every episode of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" from a torrent, you would be breaking the law by stealing copyrighted material.
The same goes for accessing other illicit content – if it's illegal to view, download, or share without a VPN, it's just as illegal when it's switched on.
There is a gray area when it comes to using a VPN to avoid age verification checks. Because the onus is on the website to make users undertake the check, the website visitor has no law to break if they circumvent it.
However, it is against the law for websites that require visitors to undergo age verification in Australia to advertise VPNs, or suggest people use them to avoid the checks.
Why would someone in Australia want a VPN?
It's no secret that Australia has some of the most intrusive online surveillance in the world. The Surveillance Legislation Amendment gives the Australian government far-reaching authority to collect information on anyone, and store it for later use. It's also part of the notorious "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing alliance, along with the US, UK, Canada, and New Zealand, meaning that any information collected by the Australian authorities may be freely shared between these other countries.
Clearly, many people object to this, and by using a VPN to encrypt your activity and change your IP address, it makes it much harder for the government to link your online activity with your real identity.
As mentioned above, streaming VPNs are also very popular for unblocking geo-restricted content on platforms like Netflix, and others use them to change their location in order to buy games and software at a lower price.
Many VPNs also include extra features such as NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro and ExpressVPN's Identity Defender. These can help protect against malware, block ads and trackers, and even function as a lightweight antivirus. Of course, dedicated software often works better, but having it bundled in can't be a bad thing.
Finally, if you pick one of the fastest VPNs, you may find your internet speeds increase. This is due to something called throttling – if your internet provider notices you use a lot of bandwidth on activities like gaming, streaming, or downloading at peak times, it may decide to reduce your speeds to make sure other users aren't impacted. However, if you use a VPN, your ISP can't see what activities you're undertaking, resulting in it being unable to make the decision to throttle your connection.
Overall, VPNs are very versatile. They're not a silver bullet for online privacy, but downloading one is the very best place to start.
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 the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
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