British Adult Content Traffic Declines After Identity Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography platforms in the UK has decreased markedly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has risen.

Immediate Fall in User Numbers After Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt decline in traffic to leading pornography sites, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 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 stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later data indicates this decline in site visits continued past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass location-based blocks by routing internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 people before the verification began. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current numbers at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content online. Actions included reporting the content to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.

This research was conducted prior to new rules took effect that require platforms to stop children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.

Government Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Advocates for better control of adult content have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking performers portraying children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.