British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, States Watchdog
Traffic to adult content sites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these barriers has risen.
Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation
The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift reduction in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later data suggests this decline in site visits continued beyond August.
Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks
Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around location-based blocks by masking connections through another country—increased dramatically after 25 July.
Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Young People Responding to Damaging Online Content
Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken included reporting the content to the platform to muting the person who posted it.
This survey was conducted prior to new rules took effect that require platforms to stop children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Government Launch Review of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the government stated it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern online world.
“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Call For Stricter Digital Regulations
Advocates for better regulation of adult content have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by using youthful performers portraying children.
Suggested changes to legislation aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally apply to the digital age.
