UK Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Surges, States Regulator
Access to adult content sites in the UK has fallen significantly since the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these barriers has increased.
Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an swift decline in traffic to major pornography sites, including the top site in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period 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 before the end-of-July implementation date. Later data suggests this decline in viewing persisted beyond August.
Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Checks
In response to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by routing internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 people prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult services.
Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content
Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering distressing content on the internet. Actions included flagging the material to the site to muting the person who posted it.
This research was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.
Government Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation
In a related development, the ministers stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Advocates Call For Tighter Online Regulations
Advocates for tighter regulation of adult content have urged 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 performers portraying children.
Proposed changes to legislation aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.
The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.
