UK Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Surges, States Regulator

Traffic to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these barriers has increased.

Sharp Drop in User Figures Following Law Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt fall in traffic to popular pornography sites, such as the leading site in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis shows this decline in viewing persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass geographic blocks by masking connections through another country—increased dramatically after 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the checks began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since decreased, with latest figures at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

In other findings, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the material to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.

This research was carried out prior to new regulations took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Legislation

In a related development, the government stated it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to making illegal, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to legislation aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.