UK Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, Reports Regulator

Access to pornography websites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications regulator. At the same time, the adoption of tools designed to circumvent these barriers has risen.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers After Rule Implementation

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an prompt decline in visits to major online adult platforms, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the 10 top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the late July implementation date. Later analysis shows this slump in viewing continued past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass geographic restrictions by routing internet traffic via another nation—surged after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering harmful content online. Actions included flagging the material to the site to muting the person who posted it.

This research was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to stop children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were showing harmful material.

Government Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the government announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Advocates Push For Stricter Digital Controls

Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults dressed as children.

Suggested changes to legislation aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply 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 illegal act to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years in the physical world finally are extended to the online sphere.