UK Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Checks, Yet VPN Use Spikes, Reports Regulator

Traffic to adult content platforms in the UK has decreased markedly since the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications regulator. At the same time, the usage of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has risen.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift decline in visits to major online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Data shows that visitor numbers to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, traffic 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 analysis suggests this downward trend in viewing continued past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by masking internet traffic via another nation—surged after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing damaging content online. Actions included flagging the content to the site to blocking the user who posted it.

This research was carried out prior to new rules came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the government stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Online Controls

Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking adults dressed as children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.