UK Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator
Visitor numbers to adult content websites in the UK has fallen significantly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the country's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the adoption of tools designed to dodge these barriers has increased.
Immediate Fall in User Numbers After Law Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July caused an swift fall in visits to leading pornography sites, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, traffic to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the late July deadline. Later analysis indicates this downward trend in site visits continued beyond August.
Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Restrictions
In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic blocks by routing connections through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.
User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material
Elsewhere, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.
This research was conducted before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to stop children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.
Government Launch Review of Pornography Laws
In a related development, the ministers announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing digital age.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.
Campaigners Call For Tighter Online Regulations
Campaigners for tighter control of online pornography have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting young-looking performers dressed as children.
Proposed changes to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
- Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, independent regulatory body to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of illegal content.
The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the digital age.
