British Adult Content Site Visits Declines Following Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has risen.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt reduction in visits to popular pornography sites, including the top provider in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent analysis shows this downward trend in site visits continued beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

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

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users before the verification began. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new regulations came into force that require platforms to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the government announced it would review the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern online world.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Controls

Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and respond to reports of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.