British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Identity Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Regulator

Visitor numbers to pornography websites 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 use of tools designed to dodge these blocks has surged.

Sharp Fall in User Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an immediate reduction in visits to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later data indicates this decline in site visits persisted beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent location-based blocks by routing internet traffic via another nation—increased dramatically after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 people before the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest numbers standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering damaging content online. Steps taken included flagging the material to the site to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted prior to new rules came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Government Launch Examination of Pornography Laws

Separately, the government announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Call For Stricter Online Regulations

Advocates for better control of adult content have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Add additional controls 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 inspections on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the online sphere.