British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, But VPN Usage Surges, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography websites in the UK has decreased markedly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these barriers has increased.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate fall in traffic to popular pornography sites, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the late July deadline. Later data indicates this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

In response to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can bypass geographic restrictions by masking connections through another nation—increased dramatically following 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users before the checks began. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest figures at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content online. Actions included flagging the material to the platform to muting the user who shared it.

This research was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the ministers announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern online world.

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the existing law in relation to making illegal, among other things, harmful portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by casting youthful performers dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

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