British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, States Regulator
Visitor numbers to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the nation's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these restrictions has surged.
Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Rule Implementation
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt fall in traffic to leading online adult platforms, such as the top site in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.
In total, traffic to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the late July implementation date. Later data suggests this downward trend in site visits continued beyond August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent location-based blocks by routing internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.
User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users before the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Young People Responding to Harmful Online Content
Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content online. Actions ranged from reporting the material to the site to blocking the user who posted it.
This survey was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, indicating that algorithms were showing harmful material.
Government Launch Review of Pornography Laws
In a related development, the ministers stated it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.
“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Controls
Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by using youthful performers dressed as children.
Proposed changes to legislation aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, independent regulatory body to conduct inspections on pornography sites and act on reports of illegal content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the online sphere.
