UK Adult Content Site Visits Falls After Age Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator

Traffic to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to bypass these blocks has increased.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt fall in visits to popular online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, traffic to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later analysis suggests this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass geographic restrictions by routing connections through another country—surged following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with latest figures at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult sites.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content online. Steps taken ranged from reporting the material to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.

This research was conducted prior to new rules came into force that require social media companies to stop children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Review of Pornography Laws

Separately, the government stated it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, for example, harmful portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Stricter Digital Regulations

Campaigners 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 using youthful adults portraying children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which studies suggests is often promoted by site systems.
• Add further restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to create private images without permission.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.

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