British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, Reports Regulator
Traffic to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the nation's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has increased.
Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement
The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in visits to leading pornography sites, such as the top provider in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July implementation date. Later analysis suggests this slump in site visits persisted past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions
In response to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by masking connections through another nation—surged following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current figures at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult services.
Young People Responding to Harmful Material
In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.
This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that require platforms to stop children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.
Government Launch Review of Pornography Legislation
Separately, the government stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern digital age.
“The review will look into the effectiveness of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a government official.
Advocates Push For Stricter Digital Regulations
Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography 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 young-looking performers dressed as children.
Proposed changes to government bills aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.
The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.
