UK Pornography Site Visits Declines After Identity Verifications, But VPN Use Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the nation's communications authority. At the same time, the use of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has risen.

Sharp Fall in User Figures After Law Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an prompt decline in visits to major online adult platforms, including the top site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July deadline. Later analysis shows this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic blocks by masking internet traffic through another country—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the checks began. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content online. Actions included flagging the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was carried out before new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to stop children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Pornography Laws

In a related development, the ministers announced it would review the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Stricter Digital 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 youthful adults portraying children.

Proposed amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on adult platforms and act on reports of unlawful content.

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