UK Adult Content Traffic Declines After Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog
Access to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the nation's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has increased.
Immediate Drop in User Numbers After Law Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the leading site in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later data indicates this decline in site visits continued beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions
In response to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking connections via another nation—increased dramatically after 25 July.
Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.
Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material
In other findings, the regulator's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering harmful content online. Steps taken included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.
This survey was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.
Government Launch Examination of Pornography Legislation
In a related development, the government announced it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern digital age.
“The examination will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.
Campaigners Push For Tighter Online Regulations
Advocates for better regulation of adult content have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by using young-looking adults dressed as children.
Proposed changes to legislation seek to:
- Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create private images without permission.
- Establish a new, independent regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.
