British Pornography Traffic Declines Following Age Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, States Watchdog
Traffic to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has fallen significantly after the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the nation's communications regulator. Concurrently, the usage of specialist software designed to dodge these barriers has surged.
Immediate Fall in User Figures After Law Enforcement
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an prompt reduction in traffic to major pornography sites, including the most visited provider in the UK. Data indicates that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now settled at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Subsequent data indicates this decline in site visits persisted beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions
In response to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic restrictions by masking connections via another country—surged after 25 July.
User numbers reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from around 650,000 users before the checks were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the volume of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for adult services.
Teenagers Responding to Damaging Material
In other findings, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing harmful content online. Actions included flagging the material to the site to blocking the person who posted it.
This survey was carried out before new regulations came into force that compel platforms to prevent children from seeing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The primary way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Government Launch Examination of Pornography Legislation
Separately, the government announced it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is effective in the modern digital age.
“The review will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding criminalising, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Call For Stricter Online Regulations
Advocates for tighter control of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by casting youthful adults portraying children.
Proposed changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Introduce tighter controls on incest-themed pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by site systems.
- Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to possess tools designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Create a new, separate regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and respond to complaints 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.
