British Adult Content Traffic Declines Following Identity Checks, But VPN Use Surges, Reports Regulator

Access to adult content platforms in the UK has seen a notable drop since the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, according to the country's communications regulator. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to bypass these blocks has surged.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in traffic to popular pornography sites, such as the top provider in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later data suggests this downward trend in site visits persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass location-based blocks by routing internet traffic via another country—more than doubled after 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content online. Actions included reporting the content to the platform to muting the user who shared it.

This research was carried out prior to new rules came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Government Announce Review of Pornography Laws

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

“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Stricter Online Controls

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking performers dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate regulatory body to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.