British Pornography Traffic Declines After Identity Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog
Access to pornography sites in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the introduction of age-checking measures earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. At the same time, the use of tools designed to circumvent these barriers has surged.
Immediate Fall in User Figures Following Law Enforcement
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an prompt decline in traffic to popular pornography sites, including the top site in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than before the late July implementation date. Subsequent analysis indicates this decline in site visits continued past August.
Surge in Virtual Private Network Usage to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new regulations, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic restrictions by routing connections via another nation—increased dramatically after 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 users prior to the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material
Elsewhere, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the platform to blocking the user who posted it.
This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Ministers Launch Review of Pornography Laws
In a related development, the ministers stated it would review the criminal law governing 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 portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a government official.
Advocates Push For Tighter Online Regulations
Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking adults dressed as children.
Suggested changes to legislation seek to:
- Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
- Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, separate regulatory body to perform spot checks on adult platforms and act on reports of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.
