British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, States Regulator

Access to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the roll-out of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. At the same time, the usage of tools designed to dodge these restrictions has increased.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures Following Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in visits to leading pornography sites, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decline 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 settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent analysis suggests this decline in viewing continued past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Checks

In response to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around location-based restrictions by masking connections via another country—surged following 25 July.

Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content online. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.

This research was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Government Announce Review of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, harmful portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Controls

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

Proposed changes to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for years in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.