British Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Age Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Surges, States Regulator
Traffic to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, according to the country's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these blocks has surged.
Sharp Drop in User Numbers After Law Enforcement
The introduction of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an immediate reduction in traffic to popular pornography sites, such as the leading site in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decrease 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 stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July deadline. Later data shows this downward trend in site visits continued past August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Evade Checks
Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking internet traffic via another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.
Young People Responding to Damaging Material
In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering damaging content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the material to the site to muting the user who posted it.
This survey was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require platforms to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the government stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern online world.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.
Advocates Call For Stricter Online Controls
Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by using youthful performers portraying children.
Proposed changes to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
- Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
- Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create private images without permission.
- Establish a new, independent regulatory body to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and respond to reports of illegal content.
The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.
