UK Adult Content Traffic Declines Following Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, States Regulator

Visitor numbers to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to circumvent these barriers has increased.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an immediate fall in visits to leading online adult platforms, including the top provider in the UK. Data reveals that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July deadline. Later data indicates this decline in site visits continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions

In response to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can bypass geographic restrictions by masking connections through another nation—surged following 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest figures at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Young People Responding to Damaging Material

In other findings, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to muting the user who shared it.

This survey was carried out before new regulations took effect that require platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Legislation

In a related development, the government stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the current law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Controls

Campaigners for better control of online pornography have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting youthful performers dressed as children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the online sphere.