UK Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator
Access to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the roll-out of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the nation's communications authority. At the same time, the usage of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has risen.
Immediate Fall in User Numbers Following Law Implementation
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in visits to leading pornography sites, including the top site 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 equivalent month in 2024.
In total, traffic to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Later data suggests this decline in site visits persisted past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions
In response to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent location-based blocks by routing connections through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.
Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with current numbers at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.
Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material
In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering distressing content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.
This research was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.
Government Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the government announced it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.
“The review will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding making illegal, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a government official.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls
Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.
Proposed amendments to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
- Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by site algorithms.
- Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, independent regulatory body to conduct inspections on adult platforms and respond to reports of illegal content.
The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the online sphere.
