British Pornography Traffic Falls Following Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, Reports Regulator

Traffic to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the adoption of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has increased.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Implementation

The introduction of age verification on 25 July caused an prompt decline in traffic to major online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July implementation date. Later analysis indicates this downward trend in site visits continued past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

In response to the new regulations, use of VPN software—which can get around geographic restrictions by masking internet traffic via another country—more than doubled after 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current figures standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Young People Responding to Harmful Online Content

In other findings, the regulator's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing damaging content on the internet. Steps taken included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.

This survey was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the government stated it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Tighter Online Regulations

Campaigners for tighter regulation of adult content have called on the government 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 adults dressed as children.

Suggested changes to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, often filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to create private images without permission.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to conduct inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.