British Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Use Spikes, States Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the introduction of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the usage of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has increased.

Sharp Fall in User Figures Following Law Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an immediate fall in traffic to major online adult platforms, such as the top site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Later data suggests this downward trend in site visits continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic blocks by routing internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the site to blocking the user who posted it.

This survey was carried out prior to new rules took effect that compel platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the ministers announced it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to criminalising, among other things, harmful portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.