UK Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Age Checks, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Regulator

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the UK has seen a notable drop since the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to dodge these restrictions has surged.

Immediate Fall in User Figures Following Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an immediate decline in visits to major pornography sites, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July deadline. Later data shows this decline in site visits continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can get around geographic restrictions by routing connections through another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with current figures at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing damaging content on the internet. Steps taken included flagging the material to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This survey was carried out before new rules took effect that compel platforms to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Government Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the government announced it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Advocates Call For Tighter Online Controls

Campaigners for better regulation of adult content have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.

Suggested changes to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent regulatory body to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

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