British Adult Content Site Visits Declines After Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, States Regulator

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the UK has decreased markedly since the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications authority. Simultaneously, the adoption of tools designed to circumvent these barriers has increased.

Sharp Fall in User Numbers After Law Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an swift decline in traffic to leading online adult platforms, such as the most visited site in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the late July implementation date. Later analysis indicates this downward trend in viewing persisted beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic blocks by routing internet traffic through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people before the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest numbers at around 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the site to blocking the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a platform feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

In a related development, the ministers announced it would review the criminal law governing pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in relation to criminalising, for example, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Stricter Online Regulations

Advocates for better control of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by using young-looking adults dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by site systems.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to create private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.