Pornography is one of the most powerful forms of control, because you cooperate in your own enslavement. Because of the deranging and darkening effect it has on the mind, you become increasingly less aware of what's actually happening to you, less conscious of the self-destruction you are employing against yourself.

And because it functions this way, it has also been instrumentalized. Sexual "liberation" is political control. Wilhelm Reich essentially wrote the playbook here, though we see plenty of precursors, and in the Enlightenment tradition, Marquis de Sade stands out (though he did not have access to mass media like we do).

As Chesterton observed, such "freedom" is the most transparent of all bribes that slavery can make to rob us of our freedom. Pleasure is far more effective than pain because it conceals the coercive nature of the act. Marcuse saw such things as a conservative force masquerading as "liberation", one intended as a distraction (like bread and circuses) and a way of sapping the attention and energies (and I would add intelligence) of those who partake that could otherwise be used toward criticism. The deranging effect is the worst effect of all, as such, but also because its effects can far outlast the period of consumption.

That people can use VPNs is not a substantive argument against bans or restrictions on pornography.