British Adult Content Traffic Declines Following Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Regulator

Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to bypass these barriers has increased.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures After Rule Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt decline in traffic to major pornography sites, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Subsequent data shows this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent location-based blocks by masking connections through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 users before the verification began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Young People Responding to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering damaging content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Review of Adult Content Laws

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

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for better control of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking performers dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to reports of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.