UK Adult Content Traffic Declines After Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, States Regulator
Access to pornography websites in the UK has decreased markedly after the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has surged.
Sharp Fall in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt decline in traffic to popular online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.
In total, traffic to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than before the late July implementation date. Later data shows this downward trend in viewing persisted past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Checks
Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around geographic blocks by masking internet traffic through another country—surged after 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content
Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.
This survey was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that require platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform timeline, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.
Ministers Launch Review of Pornography Legislation
Separately, the government stated it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.
“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, for example, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls
Advocates for better control of online pornography have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking performers dressed as children.
Proposed changes to government bills seek to:
- Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
- Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of illegal content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the digital age.
