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

Access to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the country's communications authority. At the same time, the use of tools designed to dodge these restrictions has surged.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate fall in visits to leading pornography sites, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data indicates this slump in site visits continued beyond August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can bypass location-based blocks by routing internet traffic via another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people before the checks began. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with current numbers at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the content to the platform to muting the user who posted it.

This survey was carried out before new rules took effect that require social media companies to stop 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 social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Review of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers announced it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Controls

Campaigners for better control of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by using youthful adults portraying children.

Suggested changes to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.