Long rumoured for what seems like several months, Netflix is now available in South Africa, having gone live earlier in the month. While many have become enamoured with the streaming service, the entire library of content is not accessible in certain regions. The same rings true for South Africa, with several TV shows not listed for users to download and view. There are however ways to bypass this, with the use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) being a popular method of fooling the Netflix platform that you're streaming from another country.    

Netflix is fully aware of this problem and has stated that it will crack down on any users trying to implement a VPN in order to bypass its region-specific library restrictions. “Some members use proxies or 'unblockers' to access titles available outside their territory,” expressed Netflix in a statement to TechCrunch. Adding, “in coming weeks, those members using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are.”

In the past, Netflix has been rather lax in the use of VPNs, but this change in policy is a result in the "evolution of their technology," according to Netflix. "We look forward to offering all of our content everywhere and to consumers being able to enjoy all of Netflix without using a proxy. That’s the goal we will keep pushing towards," concluded David Fullagar, VP of content delivery architecture at Netflix.

As for any criminal implications for users found using VPNs, no comment has been made at this stage, but for now Netflix has simply stated the greater efforts it will go to in ensuring VPNs are not used for streaming.