UK Pornography Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, But VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog
Visitor numbers to adult content platforms in the UK has seen a notable drop 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 circumvent these blocks has risen.
Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures Following Rule Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an prompt reduction in traffic to popular pornography sites, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July implementation date. Later data indicates this decline in viewing persisted beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based restrictions by routing connections via another country—surged after 25 July.
User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.
Young People Responding to Damaging Online Content
Elsewhere, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content on the internet. Steps taken included flagging the material to the platform to blocking the user who shared it.
This survey was conducted prior to new rules came into force that compel platforms 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 feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation
In a related development, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the current 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.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Regulations
Advocates for better control of adult content have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting youthful performers dressed as children.
Suggested changes to legislation aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform algorithms.
- Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, independent oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.
The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.
