British Adult Content Site Visits Declines After Age Checks, But VPN Use Spikes, States Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the UK has decreased markedly after the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, according to the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these barriers has risen.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an swift fall in traffic to leading online adult platforms, such as the most visited site in the UK. Data indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July implementation date. Subsequent data suggests this decline in site visits persisted beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by masking connections via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people prior to the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Online Content

In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing damaging content on the internet. Actions included flagging the material to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.

This survey was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, suggesting that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the government stated it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the current law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.

Suggested changes to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.