British Adult Content Traffic Declines After Age Verifications, But VPN Usage Spikes, States Regulator
Traffic to adult content sites in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications authority. At the same time, the adoption of tools designed to bypass these barriers has surged.
Sharp Drop in User Numbers Following Law Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in traffic to major pornography sites, including the top site in the UK. Figures indicates that user traffic to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the equivalent month in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the end-of-July deadline. Later data shows this decline in site visits persisted past August.
Sharp Increase in Virtual Private Network Usage to Evade Restrictions
In response to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another nation—increased dramatically following 25 July.
User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, up from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current numbers standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Teenagers Taking Action to Damaging Material
Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering distressing content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the site to blocking the person who posted it.
This survey was carried out prior to new rules came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, suggesting that algorithms were showing harmful material.
Government Announce Review of Adult Content Legislation
In a related development, the government announced it would examine the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern online world.
“The review will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.
Advocates Push For Tighter Online Regulations
Campaigners for better control of adult content have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting young-looking performers dressed as children.
Proposed amendments to government bills aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to create private images without permission.
- Establish 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 been enforced for decades offline finally apply to the digital age.
