British Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Identity Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, States Watchdog

Access to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to dodge these barriers has increased.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July caused an swift decline in visits to leading pornography sites, including the leading provider in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data shows this decline in site visits continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass location-based restrictions by routing internet traffic via another country—increased dramatically after 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current figures at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the site to muting the user who posted it.

This survey was carried out before new rules took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

In a related development, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern online world.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the current law in regarding making illegal, for example, harmful portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter control of online pornography have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers dressed as children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on complaints of unlawful content.

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