British Adult Content Site Visits Declines Following Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog
Access to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the country's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to dodge these barriers has surged.
Sharp Fall in User Figures After Law Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt fall in visits to leading pornography sites, including the leading site in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services 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.
Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Restrictions
In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass geographic restrictions by routing connections via another country—more than doubled after 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 people before the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current figures standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content
In other findings, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken included reporting the content to the platform to muting the person who shared it.
This research was conducted before new regulations took effect that require platforms to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.
Government Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws
Separately, the ministers announced it would review the legislation governing 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 making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.
Advocates Call For Tighter Online Controls
Campaigners for tighter control of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults dressed as children.
Proposed amendments to government bills seek to:
- Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making 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 research suggests is often promoted by platform algorithms.
- Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the online sphere.
