UK Adult Content Traffic Declines After Age Verifications, But VPN Use Spikes, States Regulator
Visitor numbers to pornography platforms in the UK has seen a notable drop since the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the nation's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to bypass these restrictions has increased.
Immediate Fall in Visitor Numbers After Law Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt decline in traffic to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July implementation date. Later data suggests this decline in site visits persisted beyond August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks
In response to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass location-based blocks by masking internet traffic via another country—surged following 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the checks began. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.
Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material
In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content online. Actions included reporting the content to the site to muting the user who posted it.
This research was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws
In a related development, the government stated it would review the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.
“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.
Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Regulations
Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by using youthful adults portraying children.
Proposed amendments to legislation aim to:
- Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, separate regulatory body to conduct inspections on adult platforms and act on complaints of illegal content.
The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.