British Adult Content Site Visits Declines Following Identity Verifications, But VPN Usage Surges, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the introduction of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the adoption of tools designed to dodge these restrictions has surged.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in traffic to leading pornography sites, including the most visited site in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis suggests this slump in viewing continued beyond August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic restrictions by routing internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content on the internet. Actions included reporting the material to the platform to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Ministers Launch Examination of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the government announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing online world.

“The review will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Advocates Call For Tighter Online Regulations

Advocates for better regulation of adult content have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by using youthful performers portraying children.

Proposed changes to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the online sphere.