British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Identity Checks, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator

Access to pornography websites in the UK has seen a notable drop after the enforcement of age-checking measures this summer, according to the nation's communications authority. Concurrently, the use of tools designed to dodge these barriers has increased.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Numbers After Law Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July caused an immediate fall in traffic to popular online adult platforms, including the most visited provider in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Later data shows this slump in site visits persisted past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by routing connections through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.

Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people prior to the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current figures at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Teenagers Responding to Damaging Online Content

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering distressing content online. Steps taken included reporting the material to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new regulations took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that algorithms were showing harmful material.

Ministers Launch Examination of Pornography Legislation

In a related development, the government announced it would review the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for better control of online pornography have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages abuse by using young-looking adults portraying children.

Proposed changes to legislation seek to:

• Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the crime of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Add further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, independent regulatory body to perform spot checks on adult platforms and respond to reports of illegal content.

The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally are extended to the online sphere.