British Pornography Traffic Falls After Age Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to adult content sites in the UK has decreased markedly since the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the nation's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these barriers has surged.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate fall in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Later data indicates this slump in viewing continued past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by masking connections via another nation—surged after 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content online. Actions ranged from flagging the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Legislation

In a related development, the government announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, among other things, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for better control of adult content have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by casting youthful adults dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent regulatory body to conduct inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally apply to the online sphere.