British Pornography Traffic Declines After Age Verifications, But VPN Use Surges, States Watchdog

Traffic to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, according to the nation's communications authority. Simultaneously, the usage of specialist software designed to bypass these blocks has surged.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July caused an prompt reduction in visits to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic 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 significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis suggests this decline in site visits continued past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can get around geographic blocks by masking internet traffic via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Material

In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content online. Steps taken included reporting the content to the platform to muting the user who posted it.

This research was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that compel platforms to stop children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Ministers Launch Review of Pornography Laws

In a related development, the government stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Push For Stricter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for tighter control of online pornography have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting youthful performers dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in settings 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.
• Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.