British Adult Content Traffic Falls After Identity Checks, But Virtual Private Network Usage Spikes, States Watchdog
Traffic to pornography websites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the enforcement of mandatory age verification this summer, as reported by the nation's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to dodge these blocks has increased.
Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers After Law Implementation
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July caused an prompt decline in traffic to major online adult platforms, such as the top site in the UK. Data shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent analysis indicates this downward trend in site visits continued past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Bypass Checks
Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based restrictions by routing internet traffic through another country—surged following 25 July.
Usage reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from around 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. Subsequently, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography sites.
Young People Responding to Damaging Material
Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering distressing content on the internet. Steps taken ranged from flagging the content to the site to muting the user who posted it.
This research was conducted before new rules took effect that compel platforms to stop children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, suggesting that recommendation systems were serving inappropriate material.
Government Announce Review of Pornography Legislation
In a related development, the government announced it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to assess 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, for example, harmful depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.
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 encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.
Proposed amendments to legislation aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on complaints of illegal content.
The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.
