British Adult Content Traffic Falls Following Identity Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Surges, States Watchdog

Visitor numbers to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly after the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, according to the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the usage of specialist software designed to circumvent these barriers has risen.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt decline in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the most visited site in the UK. Figures indicates that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later data shows this decline in viewing continued past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

In response to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic restrictions by routing internet traffic via another country—surged after 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the checks began. Subsequently, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current numbers at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Young People Responding to Harmful Online Content

In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content on the internet. Steps taken included flagging the material to the site to muting the person who shared it.

This research was carried out prior to new rules took effect that require social media companies to stop children from accessing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by looking through a platform feed, suggesting that recommendation systems were showing harmful material.

Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

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

“The examination will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Advocates Push For Stricter Digital Regulations

Campaigners for better control of online pornography have urged 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 portraying children.

Suggested amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, independent regulatory body to perform inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the online sphere.