UK Adult Content Site Visits Declines Following Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator

Access to pornography websites in the UK has fallen significantly after the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the country's communications watchdog. At the same time, the usage of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has risen.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt fall in traffic to major pornography sites, such as the top provider in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the late July deadline. Subsequent analysis indicates this decline in site visits persisted beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic blocks by routing connections via another country—surged after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 users prior to the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since decreased, with current numbers at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the content to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.

This research was carried out before new rules came into force that require platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the government announced it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Controls

Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using youthful performers portraying children.

Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally apply to the online sphere.