UK Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator
Access to adult content websites in the UK has seen a notable drop since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Simultaneously, the usage of tools designed to bypass these blocks has increased.
Immediate Drop in User Figures After Law Enforcement
The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt decline in visits to leading online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Data reveals that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.
In total, traffic to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Later data indicates this decline in viewing persisted past August.
Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Checks
In response to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent location-based restrictions by routing connections via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.
Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with latest numbers at around 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.
Young People Taking Action to Damaging Material
Elsewhere, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the content to the site to muting the user who shared it.
This research was carried out before new rules took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Ministers Launch Review of Pornography Legislation
Separately, the government announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.
“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.
Campaigners Call For Tighter Online Regulations
Advocates for better regulation of adult content have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers portraying children.
Suggested changes to legislation aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Introduce stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.
