UK Adult Content Site Visits Declines After Age Verifications, But VPN Use Spikes, Reports Regulator

Access to adult content sites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to bypass these barriers has increased.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in traffic to major pornography sites, including the leading provider in the UK. Data indicates that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data indicates this decline in viewing persisted beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can get around location-based restrictions by masking connections via another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users prior to the verification began. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content online. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the site to muting the user who posted it.

This research was conducted prior to new rules took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws

In a related development, the government stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern online world.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding making illegal, for example, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Stricter Online Regulations

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers portraying children.

Suggested changes to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.