British Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Identity Checks, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator

Visitor numbers to adult content platforms in the UK has fallen significantly since the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, according to the nation's communications watchdog. At the same time, the adoption of tools designed to circumvent these barriers has risen.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an swift decline in visits to major pornography sites, such as the leading site in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent analysis suggests this downward trend in viewing continued past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking connections via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users before the verification began. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current figures at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material

In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content online. Actions ranged from flagging the content to the site to blocking the person who shared it.

This research was conducted before new regulations came into force that require platforms to stop children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Government Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for tighter control of adult content have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by using young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Introduce additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
• Create a new, independent regulatory body to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and act on reports of illegal content.

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