UK Pornography Site Visits Falls After Age Checks, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Access to pornography platforms in the UK has fallen significantly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these blocks has surged.

Immediate Drop in User Numbers After Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an swift reduction in visits to popular pornography sites, including the leading site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers 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. Later analysis shows this downward trend in viewing continued past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass location-based restrictions by masking connections via another country—surged after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users before the verification began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Teenagers 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 encountering harmful content online. Steps taken included flagging the material to the site to blocking the person who posted it.

This research was carried out prior to new rules came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the government announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a government official.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults dressed as children.

Suggested changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to conduct inspections on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

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