British Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Age Checks, Yet VPN Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Traffic to adult content websites in the UK has fallen significantly since the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has surged.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in traffic to major pornography sites, including the leading site in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Later data suggests this downward trend in site visits persisted beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by masking connections via another country—surged following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing damaging content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the material to the platform to blocking the person who posted it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were showing inappropriate material.

Government Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the ministers announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in regarding making illegal, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by casting youthful performers portraying children.

Proposed amendments to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by site systems.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.