British Adult Content Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, States Watchdog
Access to pornography platforms in the UK has fallen significantly after the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the nation's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of tools designed to dodge these blocks has surged.
Immediate Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an swift fall in traffic to leading online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July deadline. Later analysis shows this downward trend in site visits persisted past August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by masking internet traffic through another country—more than doubled after 25 July.
Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification began. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content
Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the material to the platform to muting the person who shared it.
This survey was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.
Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation
Separately, the government stated it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding making illegal, for example, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.
Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Regulations
Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers dressed as children.
Proposed changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
- Introduce tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to create private images without permission.
- Establish a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the online sphere.