UK Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these barriers has increased.

Immediate Drop in User Numbers Following Law Implementation

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift fall in visits to popular pornography sites, including the top provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis indicates this slump in site visits continued past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks

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

User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the verification began. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

In other findings, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering damaging content online. Actions included reporting the material to the site to blocking the person who shared it.

This research was carried out before new rules took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

In a related development, the government stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Call For Stricter Online Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.

Suggested changes to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
• Introduce further controls 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 perform inspections on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

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