British Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Age Verifications, But VPN Use Surges, States Watchdog

Access to adult content sites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications authority. At the same time, the use of tools designed to bypass these barriers has increased.

Sharp Drop in User Figures Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an swift fall in traffic to major pornography sites, such as the leading site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis shows this decline in site visits persisted beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking connections through another nation—surged following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 people prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions included flagging the material to the platform to muting the person who shared it.

This research was conducted before new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a government official.

Advocates Call For Stricter Digital Controls

Campaigners for tighter control of adult content have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by using youthful performers portraying children.

Suggested amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to perform spot checks on adult platforms and act on complaints of illegal content.

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