UK Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator
Traffic to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these barriers has risen.
Immediate Fall in User Numbers After Rule Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an swift fall in visits to popular online adult platforms, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the late July deadline. Later analysis suggests this downward trend in viewing continued past August.
Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Checks
Reacting to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can get around geographic restrictions by routing connections via another nation—surged following 25 July.
User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.
Teenagers Responding to Damaging Online Content
Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering harmful content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.
This survey was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that compel platforms to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.
Ministers Announce Review of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern online world.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Advocates Push For Stricter Digital Controls
Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults portraying children.
Proposed changes to legislation aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by site algorithms.
- Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on adult platforms and act on complaints of illegal content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.
