British Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Age Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly after the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to dodge these barriers has surged.

Sharp Drop in User Figures Following Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an swift fall in visits to leading pornography sites, including the top provider in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July implementation date. Subsequent data indicates this decline in site visits persisted beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

In response to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic restrictions by masking internet traffic via another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the content to the platform to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was carried out prior to new regulations took effect that compel platforms to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Legislation

In a related development, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals 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 called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking performers dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.