British Pornography Site Visits Declines After Identity Verifications, But VPN Usage Spikes, States Watchdog
Access to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has seen a notable drop since the introduction of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications regulator. Simultaneously, the usage of specialist software designed to bypass these barriers has risen.
Sharp Fall in Visitor Figures Following Law Implementation
The enforcement of age verification on 25 July led to an prompt decline in visits to leading pornography sites, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that user traffic to this site in August were 9.8 million, a decline 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 significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July deadline. Later analysis shows this downward trend in viewing persisted beyond August.
Sharp Increase in VPN Usage to Bypass Checks
Reacting to the new regulations, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around geographic blocks by routing internet traffic via another nation—more than doubled following 25 July.
Usage peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, rising from approximately 650,000 users prior to the verification began. Subsequently, the watchdog stated that VPN usage has afterwards decreased, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It added that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Teenagers Responding to Harmful Material
Elsewhere, the watchdog's report revealed that about 60% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 had acted after encountering distressing content online. Actions included reporting the material to the site to blocking the user who posted it.
This research was carried out prior to new regulations came into force that compel social media companies to stop children from seeing dangerous content, including material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way teenagers encountered such content was by looking through a social media timeline, indicating that algorithms were showing inappropriate material.
Ministers Announce Examination of Pornography Legislation
In a related development, the government announced it would examine the legislation governing pornography to consider whether it is adequate in the modern online world.
“The examination will investigate the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, harmful portrayals of incest and any forms of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” stated a government official.
Campaigners Push For Stricter Digital Controls
Campaigners for better control of adult content have called on the government to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This encompasses content featuring incest scenes or that encourages child sexual abuse by using young-looking performers portraying children.
Proposed changes to government bills aim to:
- Ban pornography where performers are impersonating children, sometimes filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
- Extend the crime of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Apply stricter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research indicates is heavily recommended by site algorithms.
- Add further controls on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate private images without permission.
- Create a new, separate regulatory body to conduct inspections on pornography sites and respond to reports of illegal content.
The campaigners contend that these steps would ensure the safeguards that have existed for years offline finally are extended to the digital age.
