UK Pornography Traffic Declines After Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Use Spikes, States Watchdog
Access to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these barriers has risen.
Sharp Fall in User Figures After Rule Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in traffic to major pornography sites, such as the most visited site in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than prior to the late July deadline. Later analysis indicates this downward trend in site visits continued past August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can bypass location-based blocks by routing internet traffic through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification began. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest figures at around 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Online Content
In other findings, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering harmful content on the internet. Steps taken included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.
This research was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.
Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Laws
Separately, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern digital age.
“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Push For Stricter Digital Regulations
Campaigners for better regulation of online pornography have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking performers portraying children.
Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to reports of illegal content.
The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for decades offline finally apply to the online sphere.
