British Pornography Site Visits Declines After Age Checks, But VPN Usage Spikes, States Watchdog
Traffic to pornography platforms in the UK has fallen significantly since the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these blocks has increased.
Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an immediate decline in traffic to major online adult platforms, such as the top site in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis suggests this slump in site visits continued past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Checks
In response to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent location-based blocks by masking connections via another country—more than doubled after 25 July.
Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the verification began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.
Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material
In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering distressing content online. Actions included reporting the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.
This survey was conducted before new rules came into force that compel social media companies to stop 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 social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.
Ministers Launch Review of Pornography Laws
Separately, the government stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing online world.
“The review will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls
Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by casting young-looking adults dressed as children.
Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.
