UK Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Age Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog

Visitor numbers to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the enforcement of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the country's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has increased.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift reduction in traffic to major online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent data indicates this decline in site visits continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by masking internet traffic through another country—surged after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people before the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest numbers at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering harmful content online. Steps taken included reporting the content to the site to blocking the user who posted it.

This survey was carried out prior to new rules took effect that require platforms to stop children from seeing harmful content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the government stated it would review the criminal law governing pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Online Controls

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.