British Adult Content Traffic Falls After Identity Checks, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to adult content platforms in the UK has seen a notable drop after the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, according to the nation's communications regulator. At the same time, the use of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has increased.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers After Rule Implementation

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an swift reduction in visits to popular pornography sites, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the late July implementation date. Subsequent analysis shows this downward trend in viewing persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic blocks by masking internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from reporting the material to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.

This research was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern online world.

“The review will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Regulations

Advocates for tighter control of online pornography have urged the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by using youthful performers dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
• Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.