British Pornography Traffic Falls After Identity Checks, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, States Watchdog
Traffic to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, according to the nation's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these barriers has surged.
Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Law Enforcement
The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift reduction in visits to leading online adult platforms, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July deadline. Later analysis shows this slump in viewing continued beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Evade Restrictions
Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic blocks by routing connections via another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.
Usage peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users before the verification began. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.
Young People Responding to Damaging Material
Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content online. Steps taken included flagging the material to the site to muting the person who posted it.
This survey was conducted prior to new rules came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Government Announce Examination of Adult Content Legislation
In a related development, the government stated it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing online world.
“The review will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a government official.
Advocates Call For Tighter Digital Regulations
Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by using youthful performers portraying children.
Suggested changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making 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 studies indicates is heavily recommended by site systems.
- Introduce additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and respond to complaints of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.
