British Adult Content Site Visits Declines Following Identity Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these barriers has surged.

Sharp Drop in User Figures After Law Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an immediate decline in visits to popular online adult platforms, such as the top site in the UK. Data shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later data shows this decline in viewing continued past August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Restrictions

In response to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can get around geographic restrictions by masking internet traffic via another nation—surged following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since decreased, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

In other findings, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content online. Actions ranged from reporting the content to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations took effect that compel platforms to stop children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, indicating that algorithms were showing harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the government announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Advocates Push For Tighter Online Controls

Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages abuse by using youthful performers dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by site systems.
• Introduce additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades offline finally apply to the online sphere.