UK Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Identity Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, States Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. At the same time, the usage of tools designed to dodge these barriers has increased.

Immediate Drop in Visitor Figures After Law Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an immediate decline in visits to major pornography sites, such as the leading provider in the UK. Data shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the ten top adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis indicates this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based restrictions by masking connections via another country—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. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current figures at approximately 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content on the internet. Actions included reporting the material to the site to muting the user who shared it.

This survey was carried out prior to new rules came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Pornography Laws

In a related development, the ministers stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern online world.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in relation to making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers portraying children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, separate regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years offline finally apply to the online sphere.