British Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Age Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, States Watchdog
Access to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the use of specialist software designed to dodge these restrictions has risen.
Sharp Drop in Visitor Figures Following Law Enforcement
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July caused an prompt fall in traffic to popular pornography sites, including the top site in the UK. Data shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August were 9.8 million, a decrease 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 prior to the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data indicates this slump in site visits persisted beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by masking connections via another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 people before the checks began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Young People Taking Action to Harmful Online Content
Elsewhere, the regulator's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing harmful content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the site to blocking the person who shared it.
This research was conducted before new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, suggesting that algorithms were showing harmful material.
Ministers Launch Review of Adult Content Laws
In a related development, the ministers announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern online world.
“The review will look into the effectiveness of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” stated a government official.
Advocates Call For Stricter Online Regulations
Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults dressed as children.
Suggested changes to government bills seek to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
- Introduce tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Introduce additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an offence to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, independent regulatory body to conduct inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of unlawful content.
The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the protections that have existed for years in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.
