UK Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, States Regulator

Traffic to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly after the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. At the same time, the usage of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has increased.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Law Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an swift fall in visits to popular online adult platforms, including the top site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July deadline. Subsequent analysis shows this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another nation—increased dramatically after 25 July.

Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to muting the user who shared it.

This survey was carried out prior to new rules came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Advocates for better regulation of adult content have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.

Suggested amendments to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
• Introduce additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the digital age.