UK Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Age Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to dodge these restrictions has risen.

Sharp Fall in User Figures Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an swift decline in traffic to leading online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month 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 deadline. Subsequent data indicates this decline in viewing persisted beyond August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by routing connections through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current numbers at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the site to muting the person who shared it.

This research was carried out prior to new regulations took effect that compel platforms to stop children from accessing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Legislation

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

“The review will look into the efficacy of the current law in regarding making illegal, for example, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Controls

Campaigners for better control of adult content 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 casting young-looking performers dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.