British Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Age Verifications, Yet VPN Use Spikes, States Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these barriers has surged.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July caused an prompt decline in visits to major online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July deadline. Later data suggests this slump in viewing continued beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based restrictions by routing internet traffic via another country—surged following 25 July.

Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the material to the site to muting the person who posted it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Review of Adult Content Laws

In a related development, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern online world.

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

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Controls

Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by using youthful performers dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by site systems.
• Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent regulatory body 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 decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.