British Adult Content Site Visits Falls After Identity Verifications, But VPN Use Surges, States Regulator

Traffic to adult content websites in the UK has fallen significantly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to dodge these blocks has surged.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt fall in visits to popular pornography sites, such as the leading provider in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten top adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July implementation date. Subsequent analysis suggests this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Restrictions

In response to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another country—surged following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Young People Responding to Damaging Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the platform to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that require platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Call For Stricter Online Regulations

Advocates for better regulation of adult content have called on the government to outlaw 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 amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, independent regulatory body to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.