UK Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Identity Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog

Access to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to bypass these barriers has risen.

Immediate Drop in User Numbers Following Law Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in visits to popular online adult platforms, such as the leading site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, traffic to the 10 top adult services in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis suggests this slump in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions

Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass location-based restrictions by masking connections through another country—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 people before the verification began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current numbers at around 900,000. It added that the level of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.

Young People Responding to Damaging Material

Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering distressing content on the internet. Steps taken included reporting the content to the site to muting the user who posted it.

This research was conducted prior to new rules came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from accessing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people came across such content was by looking through a social media timeline, indicating that algorithms were showing harmful material.

Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws

In a related development, the government stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Push For Stricter Digital Regulations

Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Extend the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
• Introduce additional restrictions on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.