UK Pornography Traffic Declines Following Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has risen.

Immediate Fall in User Numbers Following Rule Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an immediate fall in traffic to major pornography sites, including the leading site in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later analysis shows this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by masking connections via another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 people before the verification began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current figures at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Actions included reporting the material to the site to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new rules took effect that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the government stated it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Controls

Advocates for better regulation 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 abuse by casting youthful performers portraying children.

Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.