British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Identity Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator

Access to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to dodge these barriers has risen.

Immediate Drop in User Numbers After Rule Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in visits to popular pornography sites, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers 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 ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later data suggests this slump in site visits continued beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass location-based restrictions by masking connections via another country—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people before the verification began. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest figures at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Material

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content on the internet. Steps taken included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.

This survey was carried out prior to new rules took effect that require social media companies to stop children from seeing harmful content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the government announced it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of adult content have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested changes to government bills aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the digital age.