British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Age Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, States Watchdog
Traffic to pornography sites in the UK has fallen significantly after the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has increased.
Immediate Drop in User Figures After Rule Enforcement
The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an swift fall in traffic to leading pornography sites, such as the most visited site in the UK. Data indicates that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, traffic to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July deadline. Later data suggests this downward trend in viewing persisted beyond August.
Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Restrictions
In response to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by routing connections via another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content
In other findings, the watchdog's annual study 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 platform to muting the person who posted it.
This survey was carried out before new rules came into force that compel platforms to stop children from accessing harmful content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.
Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Laws
Separately, the ministers stated it would review the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern online world.
“The review will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.
Campaigners Call For Tighter Online Controls
Advocates for better control of adult content have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.
Proposed changes to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
- Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Introduce additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.
The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.
