UK Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Visitor numbers to adult content websites in the UK has decreased markedly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the country's communications watchdog. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these blocks has surged.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July caused an prompt reduction in visits to major online adult platforms, such as the leading site in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the 10 top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis shows this decline in site visits continued past August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking internet traffic via another country—increased dramatically after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users prior to the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content online. Actions included flagging the material to the site to blocking the person who shared it.

This research was conducted before new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Advocates for better control of adult content have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.

Proposed changes to government bills aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally apply to the online sphere.