British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, Reports Regulator

Traffic to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. At the same time, the usage of specialist software designed to circumvent these barriers has increased.

Sharp Drop in User Figures Following Rule Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an immediate decline in visits to leading online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Data reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the 10 top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis indicates this slump in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by routing connections through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users before the checks began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current figures at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content online. Actions included flagging the material to the platform to muting the user who posted it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the ministers stated it would review the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested changes to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by site systems.
• Introduce additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the online sphere.