UK Adult Content Traffic Declines Following Identity Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog
Visitor numbers to adult content platforms in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications regulator. Concurrently, the usage of specialist software designed to bypass these barriers has risen.
Immediate Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Law Implementation
The enforcement of age vetting on 25 July resulted in an swift decline in visits to leading online adult platforms, such as the most visited site in the UK. Data shows that user traffic to this platform in August reached 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.
In total, visitor numbers to the 10 most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July deadline. Later analysis indicates this downward trend in site visits persisted beyond August.
Surge in VPN Usage to Evade Checks
Reacting to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic blocks by masking connections via another country—surged following 25 July.
Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 people prior to the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with latest figures standing at around 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use is “much lower” than traffic for pornography services.
Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content
In other findings, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing distressing content online. Actions included flagging the material to the site to blocking the user who posted it.
This research was carried out prior to new rules came into force that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, including material related to suicide and pornography. The primary way young people came across such content was by scrolling through a platform feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving harmful material.
Government Launch Examination of Pornography Laws
Separately, the government announced it would review the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is effective in the ever-developing digital age.
“The examination will investigate the efficacy of the current law in regarding making illegal, among other things, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” stated a justice minister.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls
Campaigners for better regulation of adult content have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using youthful adults dressed as children.
Suggested changes to government bills aim to:
- Prohibit pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making 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 research indicates is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Add additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to create non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, separate oversight agency to conduct inspections on adult platforms and act on reports of unlawful content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.
