British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Identity Verifications, But VPN Usage Spikes, States Regulator

Traffic to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the nation's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the use of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has risen.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers After Rule Implementation

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate decline in traffic to leading online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the late July implementation date. Subsequent analysis shows this decline in viewing persisted past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Checks

In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass location-based blocks by masking connections through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest numbers at around 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.

Young People Responding to Damaging Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the content to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.

This survey was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require social media companies to stop children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the ministers announced it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Stricter Online Controls

Campaigners for tighter control of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.

Suggested changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.