UK Pornography Traffic Falls After Age Checks, But Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, States Regulator

Access to adult content platforms in the UK has fallen significantly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these barriers has surged.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers After Rule Implementation

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate fall in visits to popular online adult platforms, such as 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 from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July deadline. Subsequent data shows this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Evade Checks

In response to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 people prior to the checks began. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current numbers at around 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering distressing content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new rules came into force that require platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Ministers Announce Review of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the government stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Advocates Push For Stricter Digital Regulations

Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by using young-looking performers portraying children.

Suggested changes to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Introduce 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 perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.

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