UK Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, But VPN Use Spikes, States Watchdog
Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has surged.
Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Rule Enforcement
The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt decline in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the leading provider in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later analysis shows this slump in site visits continued past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by routing internet traffic via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.
User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material
In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.
This survey was conducted before new rules took effect that compel social media companies to stop children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.
Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws
Separately, the ministers announced it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern online world.
“The review will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.
Advocates Call For Tighter Online Controls
Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking performers portraying children.
Suggested amendments to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating 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 acts the part of a child.
- Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
- Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to reports of illegal content.
The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.