British Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Age Verifications, Yet VPN Use Spikes, States Watchdog

Access to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, according to the nation's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has increased.

Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt fall in traffic to major online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the late July deadline. Subsequent data suggests this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Surge in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around location-based blocks by routing connections via another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.

Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the material to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was conducted prior to new rules came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers announced it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the ever-developing online world.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Campaigners for better regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested amendments to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, independent oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for years offline finally are extended to the online sphere.