UK Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography platforms in the UK has decreased markedly after the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications authority. Simultaneously, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these blocks has risen.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an prompt decline in traffic to major pornography sites, such as the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the 10 top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July implementation date. Later data shows this decline in viewing continued past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can get around location-based restrictions by routing connections 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 before the verification began. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content online. Steps taken included reporting the content to the platform to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require platforms to stop children from accessing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Government Launch Review of Adult Content Laws

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

“The review will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a government official.

Advocates Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Campaigners for better control of adult content have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by using young-looking performers portraying children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.