British Pornography Traffic Declines Following Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, States Watchdog

Traffic to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications authority. Simultaneously, the use of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an immediate reduction in visits to leading online adult platforms, such as the leading provider in the UK. Data reveals that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July deadline. Later data indicates this slump in site visits persisted beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can get around geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another country—surged after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users before the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current figures standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the platform to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was carried out prior to new rules took effect that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Laws

In a related development, the ministers stated it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the government to ban 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 aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of illegal content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the online sphere.