UK Adult Content Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to adult content websites in the UK has fallen significantly after the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the nation's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the usage of specialist software designed to dodge these blocks has surged.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers After Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July caused an swift fall in traffic to major pornography sites, including the top site in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent analysis indicates this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by routing connections via another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.

Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new regulations came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the ministers announced it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in regarding criminalising, for example, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter control of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages abuse by casting youthful performers portraying children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.