British Pornography Traffic Falls After Age Verifications, But VPN Use Surges, Reports Watchdog
Access to adult content sites in the UK has decreased markedly since the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has risen.
Immediate Drop in User Numbers After Rule Enforcement
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an immediate decline in visits to leading online adult platforms, such as the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July implementation date. Subsequent analysis shows this decline in site visits continued past August.
Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Checks
Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by routing internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material
In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content online. Steps taken included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.
This research was conducted before new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that algorithms were showing harmful material.
Ministers Launch Examination of Pornography Laws
Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.
“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.
Campaigners Call For Tighter Online Controls
Campaigners for tighter control of adult content have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages abuse by using youthful performers portraying children.
Suggested changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the crime of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
- Introduce tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
- Add further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.
