UK Adult Content Site Visits Declines Following Identity Verifications, But VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator

Traffic to pornography platforms in the UK has fallen significantly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the country's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these blocks has increased.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an swift reduction in visits to leading pornography sites, such as the leading site in the UK. Data shows that visitor numbers to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later analysis suggests this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass location-based restrictions by routing internet traffic via another country—surged following 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

In other findings, the regulator's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content online. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the site to blocking the user who posted it.

This research was carried out before new rules came into force that require platforms to stop children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation 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 criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Advocates Push For Stricter Online Regulations

Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by using youthful performers dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to government bills aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of illegal content.

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