British Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Identity Checks, But VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Watchdog
Traffic to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, according to the country's communications authority. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to bypass these restrictions has risen.
Immediate Drop in User Figures Following Rule Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an swift reduction in visits to leading online adult platforms, such as the leading site in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent analysis shows this downward trend in viewing persisted beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Evade Restrictions
In response to the new regulations, adoption of VPN software—which can bypass location-based blocks by routing connections via another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the checks began. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest numbers at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.
Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Material
Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content on the internet. Actions included reporting the material to the platform to blocking the user who shared it.
This research was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, including material related to suicide and adult material. The primary way teenagers encountered such content was by scrolling through a social media timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving harmful material.
Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the ministers stated it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the current law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote the abuse of children,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Call For Stricter 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 simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.
Suggested amendments to legislation seek to:
- Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer plays the role of a child.
- Apply stricter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by site algorithms.
- Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.
The campaigners contend that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the online sphere.
