British Pornography Site Visits Declines Following Identity Verifications, Yet VPN Usage Surges, Reports Watchdog
Visitor numbers to pornography websites in the UK has fallen significantly since the roll-out of mandatory age verification this summer, according to the nation's communications watchdog. Simultaneously, the use of tools designed to circumvent these restrictions has increased.
Sharp Drop in Visitor Figures After Law Enforcement
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July caused an swift fall in visits to leading pornography sites, including the top provider in the UK. Figures reveals that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million from the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, visitor numbers to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July implementation date. Subsequent data indicates this downward trend in viewing persisted past August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Evade Checks
In response to the new rules, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can circumvent geographic restrictions by routing connections through another country—increased dramatically following 25 July.
Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from around 650,000 people before the verification were introduced. However, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards fallen back, with latest figures standing at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for pornography services.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Online Content
In other findings, the watchdog's annual study found that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering damaging content online. Actions included flagging the content to the platform to blocking the person who shared it.
This survey was conducted before new rules came into force that require social media companies to prevent children from seeing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a platform feed, indicating that algorithms were showing harmful material.
Government Announce Examination of Pornography Laws
Separately, the government stated it would examine the criminal law relating to pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the modern online world.
“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in relation to criminalising, among other things, harmful depictions of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a government official.
Campaigners Push For Stricter Online Controls
Campaigners for tighter regulation of online pornography have called on the authorities to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking performers portraying children.
Suggested changes to legislation aim to:
- Ban pornography where adults are mimicking children, sometimes filmed in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of making an indecent image of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Introduce stricter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is heavily recommended by platform algorithms.
- Add further restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an offence to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
- Establish a new, independent regulatory body to perform spot checks on pornography sites and act on reports of unlawful content.
The advocates contend that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for decades offline finally are extended to the online sphere.
