UK Pornography Traffic Declines Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, States Regulator

Access to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications authority. At the same time, the usage of tools designed to bypass these blocks has risen.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the top provider in the UK. Data indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, 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 deadline. Subsequent analysis indicates this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent location-based blocks by masking connections via another country—surged following 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to muting the user who shared it.

This research was conducted before new rules took effect that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the ministers announced it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, among other things, damaging portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

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

Suggested changes to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden 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 familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct inspections on adult platforms and respond to reports of illegal content.

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