British Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Access to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the introduction of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the use of specialist software designed to circumvent these barriers has risen.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an prompt reduction in traffic to major online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this platform in August stood at 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 stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis shows this downward trend in site visits continued past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent location-based blocks by routing connections through another nation—surged following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current figures at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material

Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the content to the site to muting the person who posted it.

This research was conducted before new rules came into force that compel platforms to stop children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Stricter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for better control 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 young-looking adults dressed as children.

Suggested amendments to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create private images without permission.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years in the physical world finally apply to the digital age.