British Adult Content Site Visits Falls After Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator
Traffic to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the country's communications regulator. At the same time, the use of tools designed to dodge these blocks has risen.
Immediate Drop in User Figures After Law Implementation
The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift reduction in traffic to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July implementation date. Later data suggests this decline in site visits persisted past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions
Reacting to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can get around location-based restrictions by routing connections via another nation—increased dramatically after 25 July.
User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 users before the verification began. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.
Teenagers Responding 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 online. Steps taken included flagging the content to the platform to muting the user who posted it.
This research was carried out before new regulations came into force that require platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Ministers Launch Examination of Adult Content Legislation
In a related development, the government stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern online world.
“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.
Advocates Call For Tighter Online Regulations
Campaigners for better control of online pornography have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting youthful adults dressed as children.
Suggested amendments to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
- Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, independent oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.
