British Adult Content Traffic Falls After Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the introduction of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the country's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these barriers has increased.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an immediate decline in visits to major online adult platforms, such as the top site in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the late July deadline. Subsequent data indicates this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic blocks by masking connections through another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the checks began. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material

In other findings, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering harmful content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the platform to muting the user who posted it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that require platforms to stop children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the government stated it would review 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 efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Digital Regulations

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by using youthful adults portraying children.

Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct inspections on adult platforms and act on complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.