UK Pornography Traffic Falls After Identity Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Usage Surges, Reports Regulator

Traffic to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.

Sharp Fall in User Figures After Law Enforcement

The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an prompt fall in traffic to leading pornography sites, such as the most visited site in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this site in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.

Overall, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the late July implementation date. Later analysis shows this decline in viewing persisted beyond August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Checks

In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can circumvent geographic blocks by routing connections via another country—more than doubled following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 people prior to the checks were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the watchdog's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Actions ranged from flagging the material to the site to blocking the person who shared it.

This survey was carried out prior to new rules came into force that require platforms to stop children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Government Announce Examination of Adult Content Legislation

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

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

Campaigners Call For Tighter Online Regulations

Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography have urged the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages abuse by casting youthful performers dressed as children.

Proposed changes to government bills seek to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which studies suggests is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Establish a new, independent oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.