UK Pornography Traffic Declines After Age Checks, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator

Visitor numbers to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Simultaneously, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has surged.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Numbers After Rule Implementation

The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an swift fall in traffic to leading pornography sites, including the top provider in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis suggests this downward trend in viewing persisted beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by routing connections through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the site to muting the user who shared it.

This research was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Government Launch Examination of Pornography Legislation

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 online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Stricter Online Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults portraying children.

Proposed changes to legislation aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and act on complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.