British Adult Content Traffic Falls After Age Checks, Yet VPN Use Spikes, States Regulator

Traffic to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.

Immediate Drop in User Figures Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an swift decline in visits to major pornography sites, such as the leading site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis shows this downward trend in site visits continued past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Checks

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

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 people prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current figures standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material

In other findings, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content on the internet. Actions included reporting the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.

This research was conducted prior to 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 scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Government Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the government stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is effective in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Call For Stricter Online Controls

Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking performers portraying children.

Suggested changes to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on adult platforms and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally are extended to the online sphere.