UK Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Use Spikes, States Watchdog

Traffic to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop after the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. At the same time, the usage of tools designed to bypass these barriers has increased.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers After Rule Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an immediate reduction in visits to leading online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent data indicates this slump in site visits persisted past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic blocks by masking internet traffic via another nation—surged after 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people before the checks began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from reporting the material to the site to blocking the person who posted it.

This research was conducted before new regulations took effect that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.

Government Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to assess 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, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Campaigners for tighter control of adult content have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.