British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, But VPN Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Visitor numbers to pornography sites in the UK has decreased markedly after the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Simultaneously, the use of tools designed to bypass these blocks has surged.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt fall in traffic to major online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data indicates this decline in site visits continued past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

In response to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic restrictions by routing internet traffic via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the site to muting the user who posted it.

This survey was conducted before new rules came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the government stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern online world.

“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the current law in regarding making illegal, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to perform inspections on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

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