UK Pornography Site Visits Declines After Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Access to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, according to the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to dodge these blocks has increased.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt fall in traffic to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis suggests this slump in site visits persisted beyond August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can circumvent location-based blocks by routing connections via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the user who shared it.

This survey was carried out before new rules took effect that compel social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the ministers announced it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Campaigners for better regulation of online pornography have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages abuse by casting youthful performers portraying children.

Suggested amendments to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and act on reports of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.