British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Checks, But Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, States Watchdog
Visitor numbers to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, according to the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.
Immediate Drop in User Figures Following Law Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in visits to leading online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent data indicates this slump in viewing continued beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking connections through another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Young People Taking Action to Harmful Material
In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the content to the site to blocking the person who shared it.
This research was conducted prior to new rules took effect that require social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.
Government Announce Review of Adult Content Legislation
Separately, the government stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.
“The examination will look into the efficacy of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls
Campaigners for better regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by using young-looking performers dressed as children.
Proposed changes to legislation aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
- Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Introduce additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the digital age.
