British Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Identity Checks, But Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, States Regulator

Access to pornography websites in the UK has seen a notable drop since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the nation's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these blocks has surged.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an immediate decline in visits to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July deadline. Later analysis indicates this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks

In response to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around geographic blocks by routing connections through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people prior to the checks began. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since decreased, with latest numbers at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken included reporting the material to the site to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted prior to new rules came into force that compel platforms to stop children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.

Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Laws

In a related development, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The review will look into the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for better regulation of adult content have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by site systems.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of illegal content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.