UK Pornography Traffic Falls After Age Checks, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator

Access to adult content platforms in the UK has fallen significantly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the nation's communications regulator. At the same time, the use of tools designed to bypass these barriers has risen.

Immediate Fall in Visitor Figures After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an swift fall in traffic to popular online adult platforms, such as the top provider in the UK. Data reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decline of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, traffic to the ten top adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent analysis shows this downward trend in site visits persisted past August.

Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Restrictions

Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic blocks by masking internet traffic through another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 people before the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has since decreased, with current figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.

Young People Responding to Harmful Online Content

In other findings, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the platform to muting the person who shared it.

This survey was conducted before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to stop children from seeing harmful content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Legislation

Separately, the ministers announced it would review the legislation relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern digital age.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding criminalising, among other things, harmful portrayals of incest and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Online Regulations

Advocates for tighter regulation of online pornography have urged the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring simulated familial abuse or that appears to promote abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested amendments to legislation aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which studies indicates is often promoted by platform algorithms.
• Introduce further controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to possess tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to complaints of illegal content.

The campaigners argue that these steps would ensure the protections that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the online sphere.