British Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Surges, States Regulator

Access to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the roll-out of age-checking measures earlier this year, according to the nation's communications regulator. At the same time, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.

Sharp Fall in User Figures After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July caused an swift fall in visits to major pornography sites, including the most visited provider in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent data suggests this decline in viewing continued beyond August.

Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking connections through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 users prior to the checks began. However, the regulator stated that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult services.

Young People Responding to Harmful Material

In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content on the internet. Actions ranged from reporting the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Review of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the government announced it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will look into the effectiveness of the current law in regarding making illegal, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Controls

Advocates for tighter control of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting youthful adults dressed as children.

Proposed changes to legislation aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult acts the part of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by platform systems.
• Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to possess software designed to generate private images without permission.
• Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of illegal content.

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