British Adult Content Traffic Falls After Identity Checks, Yet VPN Use Surges, States Regulator
Traffic to adult content websites in the UK has decreased markedly since the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the usage of tools designed to dodge these barriers has surged.
Sharp Drop in User Numbers Following Law Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an swift fall in traffic to popular online adult platforms, including the leading provider in the UK. Data indicates that visitor numbers to this site in August were 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million from the same period in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited adult services in the UK have now stabilized at a markedly decreased volume than prior to the late July deadline. Later data suggests this downward trend in site visits continued beyond August.
Surge in Virtual Private Network Adoption to Evade Checks
In response to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can bypass geographic blocks by masking internet traffic via another country—surged after 25 July.
Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 users prior to the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current figures standing at approximately 900,000. It added that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material
Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content on the internet. Actions included flagging the content to the site to muting the user who posted it.
This research was carried out before new regulations took effect that compel social media companies to prevent children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a platform timeline, indicating that recommendation systems were showing inappropriate material.
Government Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation
Separately, the government announced it would review the legislation relating to pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.
“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, damaging depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a government official.
Advocates Push For Stricter Online Controls
Campaigners for better control of adult content have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that appears to promote child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers portraying children.
Proposed changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, often recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the crime of making an indecent image of a child to include material where an older performer acts the part of a child.
- Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform systems.
- Introduce additional controls on “nudification” technology, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of illegal content.
The advocates contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have been enforced for decades in the physical world finally apply to the online sphere.
