British Pornography Traffic Declines After Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Regulator
Visitor numbers to adult content websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to bypass these barriers has risen.
Sharp Drop in Visitor Figures After Law Enforcement
The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an swift decline in traffic to popular pornography sites, such as the leading provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data indicates this slump in viewing continued beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks
In response to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by routing internet traffic via another nation—increased dramatically following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Young People Responding to Harmful Online Content
In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content online. Steps taken included flagging the material to the site to blocking the user who shared it.
This research was carried out prior to new rules came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a social media timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.
Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws
Separately, the government stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern online world.
“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Call For Tighter Online Controls
Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting youthful performers portraying children.
Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in settings 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 incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by site algorithms.
- Introduce additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on complaints of illegal content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.
