British Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography platforms in the UK has decreased markedly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the country's communications authority. Simultaneously, the use of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has increased.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift reduction in traffic to leading online adult platforms, such as the leading site in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis shows this downward trend in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

In response to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent location-based restrictions by masking internet traffic via another nation—increased dramatically following 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Young People Responding to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering distressing content on the internet. Actions ranged from reporting the content to the site to muting the user who posted it.

This survey was conducted prior to new rules took effect that require platforms to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws

In a related development, the ministers announced it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to legislation aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.