British Adult Content Site Visits Falls Following Identity Verifications, But VPN Usage Spikes, Reports Regulator

Visitor numbers to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the introduction of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the usage of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has increased.

Immediate Fall in User Figures Following Law Implementation

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an immediate reduction in traffic to leading pornography sites, such as the most visited provider in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, traffic to the ten top adult services in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Subsequent analysis shows this slump in site visits persisted past August.

Surge in VPN Adoption to Bypass Checks

Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can bypass geographic restrictions by routing connections through another country—surged after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from approximately 650,000 users before the verification began. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has since fallen back, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Online Content

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content online. Steps taken ranged from reporting the material to the site to muting the user who posted it.

This survey was conducted prior to new regulations took effect that require social media companies to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to suicide and pornography. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a platform feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.

Government Launch Examination of Adult Content Laws

Separately, the ministers stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.

“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a government official.

Advocates Call For Stricter Online Regulations

Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography have urged the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote abuse by using young-looking performers dressed as children.

Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:

• Ban pornography where performers are mimicking 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 acts the part of a child.
• Apply tighter regulation on incest-themed pornography, which studies indicates is heavily recommended by platform systems.
• Add additional controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to reports of unlawful content.

The advocates argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the digital age.