UK Pornography Site Visits Falls Following Identity Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog
Visitor numbers to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.
Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate fall in traffic to leading online adult platforms, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later data indicates this downward trend in site visits persisted past August.
Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Checks
Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by routing connections through another country—more than doubled after 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material
In other findings, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the content to the site to muting the user who shared it.
This survey was conducted before new regulations took effect that require platforms to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.
Government Launch Review of Pornography Legislation
In a related development, the ministers announced it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.
“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a justice minister.
Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls
Campaigners 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 using youthful adults portraying children.
Proposed changes to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
- Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to create private images without permission.
- Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.
The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.
