UK Pornography Traffic Declines After Identity Verifications, Yet Virtual Private Network Use Surges, States Watchdog
Visitor numbers to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the country's communications regulator. At the same time, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.
Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers After Law Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate decline in traffic to popular pornography sites, such as the most visited site in the UK. Data shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later data shows this downward trend in site visits continued past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions
In response to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based restrictions by routing internet traffic via another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.
User numbers 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. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material
Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the material to the site to blocking the user who shared it.
This research was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that compel platforms to stop children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, suggesting that algorithms were showing harmful material.
Ministers Launch Examination of Pornography Legislation
Separately, the government stated it would review the criminal law governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the modern online world.
“The examination will look into the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful depictions of incest and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.
Advocates Push For Tighter Digital Controls
Advocates for better regulation of adult content have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting youthful performers dressed as children.
Suggested amendments to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Introduce stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by site systems.
- Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.
The advocates argue that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades offline finally apply to the online sphere.
