UK Pornography Site Visits Declines After Age Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Traffic to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly after the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the country's communications authority. At the same time, the usage of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has risen.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in visits to popular pornography sites, such as the most visited 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.

In total, traffic to the ten top adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis indicates this downward trend in viewing continued beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic restrictions by masking internet traffic via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 users before the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering damaging content online. Actions ranged from flagging the material to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that require social media companies to stop children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Pornography Laws

Separately, the ministers announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.

Campaigners Call For Stricter Digital Regulations

Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested amendments to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for years in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.