British Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Identity Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator

Traffic to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to dodge these barriers has increased.

Sharp Fall in User Numbers After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an swift decline in traffic to major online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the 10 top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the late July implementation date. Later data shows this slump in site visits continued beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can bypass geographic restrictions by masking connections through another country—surged after 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current numbers at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

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

This survey was conducted prior to new rules took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

In a related development, the government stated it would review the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Advocates Call For Stricter Online Regulations

Campaigners for better regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally apply to the digital age.