UK Pornography Traffic Falls After Age Verifications, But VPN Use Surges, Reports Regulator

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the country's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these restrictions has risen.

Immediate Drop in User Figures Following Law Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an swift fall in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the most visited site in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July deadline. Later data shows this decline in site visits continued past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

In response to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around geographic blocks by masking connections via another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current figures at around 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content online. Actions included flagging the material to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations took effect that require social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the government stated it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a government official.

Advocates Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Advocates for better control of online pornography have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using youthful performers dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on adult platforms and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.