British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Identity Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, States Watchdog
Visitor numbers to adult content sites in the UK has fallen significantly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.
Sharp Drop in User Numbers After Law Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an swift decline in visits to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Subsequent analysis indicates this slump in viewing continued beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks
In response to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent location-based blocks by routing connections through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.
Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users before the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since decreased, with latest figures at around 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 annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content on the internet. Actions ranged from reporting the content to the site to muting the person who shared it.
This survey was conducted before new rules took effect that require social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Ministers Announce Review of Adult Content Laws
Separately, the ministers announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.
“The examination will look into the efficacy of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Advocates Call For Stricter Digital Regulations
Campaigners for tighter control of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by casting young-looking performers portraying children.
Suggested changes to legislation seek to:
- Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by site systems.
- Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.
The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.
