British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Identity Checks, Yet VPN Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog
Access to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the nation's communications authority. Simultaneously, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has increased.
Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Rule Enforcement
The introduction of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an swift reduction in traffic to popular pornography sites, such as the top site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the late July deadline. Subsequent analysis shows this downward trend in viewing continued beyond August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Checks
Reacting to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can get around location-based blocks by routing connections via another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.
User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people before the verification began. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since 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 services.
Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content
In other findings, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the material to the platform to muting the user who posted it.
This research was conducted before new regulations took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.
Government Announce Review of Pornography Laws
Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.
“The review will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.
Campaigners Call For Stricter Digital Regulations
Advocates for tighter control of online pornography have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.
Proposed changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by site algorithms.
- Introduce further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
- Establish a new, independent oversight agency to conduct inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of illegal content.
The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades offline finally apply to the digital age.
