UK Pornography Traffic Declines Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to adult content platforms in the UK has decreased markedly since the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has increased.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures Following Rule Implementation

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July caused an immediate decline in visits to major pornography sites, including the leading site in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July implementation date. Later analysis indicates this downward trend in site visits continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people prior to the checks began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Actions ranged from reporting the material to the platform to muting the user who posted it.

This research was conducted before new rules came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Government Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the ministers announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the current law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by casting youthful performers dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers 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 adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to perform spot checks on adult platforms and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.