British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Identity Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog
Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has risen.
Sharp Fall in User Figures Following Rule Enforcement
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift fall in visits to leading pornography sites, such as the leading provider 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, traffic to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the late July implementation date. Later analysis shows this downward trend in site visits persisted past August.
Surge in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks
In response to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent location-based blocks by masking internet traffic through another country—surged after 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 people prior to the verification began. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.
Young People Responding to Damaging Online Content
In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing damaging content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the content to the platform to blocking the user who shared 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 suicide and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.
Government Announce Review of Adult Content Legislation
Separately, the government stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.
“The review will look into the effectiveness of the current law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.
Campaigners Call For Stricter Digital Controls
Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.
Proposed changes to legislation aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
- Introduce tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create private images without permission.
- Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.
