British Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Age Checks, But Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to adult content sites in the UK has fallen significantly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. At the same time, the usage of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an swift decline in visits to leading pornography sites, such as the leading provider in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the late July implementation date. Later data suggests this downward trend in viewing persisted beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks

In response to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass location-based blocks by routing connections via another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the verification began. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Young People Responding to Damaging Material

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering distressing content online. Steps taken included flagging the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new rules came into force that require platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the government stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Advocates Call For Stricter Digital Regulations

Advocates for tighter control of online pornography have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Proposed amendments to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.