British Adult Content Site Visits Falls After Age Checks, But VPN Use Surges, Reports Watchdog

Traffic to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these barriers has risen.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an swift reduction in visits to leading online adult platforms, including the top provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July implementation date. Subsequent data shows this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by routing connections via another nation—surged after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the verification began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since decreased, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering damaging content online. Actions included flagging the content to the site to blocking the person who posted it.

This survey was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that require social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Government Announce Review of Pornography Laws

In a related development, the government stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Advocates for better control of online pornography have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by using youthful performers dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
• Introduce additional 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 inspections on pornography sites and act on reports of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally apply to the digital age.