British Pornography Site Visits Falls After Identity Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, States Regulator

Access to pornography sites in the UK has decreased markedly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the nation's communications watchdog. At the same time, the adoption of tools designed to circumvent these barriers has increased.

Sharp Drop in User Numbers After Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age verification on 25 July led to an immediate decline in visits to leading pornography sites, including the leading provider in the UK. Figures reveals that visitor numbers to this site in August stood at 9.8 million, a drop of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now settled at a significantly reduced level than prior to the late July implementation date. Later data suggests this decline in site visits persisted past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Evade Checks

Reacting to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around geographic blocks by masking connections through another country—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers reached a high at over 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 users before the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with current figures at around 900,000. It clarified that the level of daily VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography sites.

Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content

Elsewhere, the regulator's report revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after seeing damaging content online. Steps taken ranged from flagging the material to the site to muting the user who shared it.

This research was conducted prior to new regulations came into force that require social media companies to stop children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to self-harm and pornography. The most common way young people encountered such content was by looking through a social media feed, suggesting that algorithms were serving inappropriate material.

Ministers Announce Review of Pornography Legislation

Separately, the ministers announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is “fit for purpose” in the modern digital age.

“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the current law in relation to criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which promote child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.

Campaigners Call For Tighter Digital Regulations

Advocates 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 abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Proposed changes to legislation aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, sometimes recorded in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the crime of creating an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own software designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Establish a new, separate oversight agency to perform inspections on pornography sites and act on complaints 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.