UK Pornography Site Visits Declines After Identity Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, States Regulator
Visitor numbers to adult content sites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, according to the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has risen.
Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Rule Enforcement
The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an swift fall in visits to popular pornography sites, including the leading site in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data shows this decline in viewing continued beyond August.
Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can bypass location-based blocks by routing connections via another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users prior to the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current numbers at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult services.
Teenagers Responding to Damaging Online Content
Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the site to blocking the person who shared it.
This survey was carried out prior to new rules came into force that require platforms to stop children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.
Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the government stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.
“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls
Advocates for tighter control of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.
Proposed changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of making an indecent image 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 suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Introduce additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, separate regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.
