UK Adult Content Site Visits Declines After Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the nation's communications watchdog. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these restrictions has risen.

Sharp Fall in User Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an immediate fall in traffic to leading pornography sites, including the most visited provider in the UK. Data indicates that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis shows this slump in viewing continued past August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can get around geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another nation—increased dramatically after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering damaging content online. Actions included flagging the material to the site to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

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

“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.

Campaigners Push For Stricter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.

The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years offline finally apply to the digital age.