British Adult Content Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, But VPN Use Surges, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography websites in the UK has fallen significantly since the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to bypass these blocks has surged.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift reduction in visits to leading online adult platforms, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July deadline. Later analysis suggests this slump in site visits persisted beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can bypass geographic blocks by masking connections through another nation—surged after 25 July.

Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users before the verification began. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Young People Responding to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content online. Actions ranged from reporting the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.

This research was conducted before new regulations came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Launch Examination of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the ministers stated it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

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

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Introduce additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the online sphere.