British Pornography Traffic Declines After Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog
Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the nation's communications regulator. At the same time, the adoption of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has risen.
Immediate Fall in User Numbers Following Law Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt decline in visits to popular online adult platforms, such as the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than prior to the late July deadline. Subsequent analysis indicates this decline in site visits persisted past August.
Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Restrictions
In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass geographic blocks by routing connections via another country—surged after 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users prior to the checks began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material
Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the site to muting the person who posted it.
This research was carried out prior to new rules came into force that compel platforms to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.
Ministers Launch Examination of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the government announced it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.
“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Controls
Campaigners for better regulation of online pornography have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults dressed as children.
Suggested amendments to legislation seek to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform algorithms.
- Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of illegal content.
The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.
