British Pornography Traffic Declines After Age Checks, But VPN Usage Surges, Reports Regulator
Access to pornography platforms in the United Kingdom has decreased markedly since the enforcement of mandatory age verification earlier this year, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the adoption of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.
Sharp Drop in User Figures Following Rule Implementation
The introduction of age verification on 25 July resulted in an immediate fall in traffic to major online adult platforms, including 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 from the equivalent month in 2024.
Overall, traffic to the ten most-visited pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a “lower level” than before the end-of-July deadline. Subsequent data suggests this decline in site visits continued beyond August.
Surge in VPN Usage to Bypass Restrictions
Reacting to the new rules, adoption of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)—which can get around location-based blocks by routing internet traffic via another country—surged after 25 July.
Usage reached a high at more than 1.4 million in the middle of August, rising from approximately 650,000 people prior to the checks began. However, the regulator noted that VPN usage has since steadily declined, with current numbers standing at around 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use is “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.
Teenagers Taking Action to Harmful Online Content
Elsewhere, the regulator's annual study revealed that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had acted after seeing distressing content on the internet. Actions ranged from reporting the content to the site to muting the person who posted it.
This research was carried out before new rules came into force that require social media companies to stop children from accessing dangerous content, such as material related to self-harm and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by looking through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.
Ministers Announce Review of Pornography Laws
In a related development, the ministers announced it would examine the criminal law governing pornography to assess whether it is adequate in the ever-developing online world.
“The examination will look into the effectiveness of the existing law in regarding criminalising, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any types of pornography which encourage child sexual abuse,” said a justice minister.
Advocates Push For Tighter Online Regulations
Advocates for better regulation of online pornography have called on the government to ban so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by using young-looking adults dressed as children.
Suggested changes to legislation seek to:
- Ban pornography where adults are impersonating children, sometimes recorded in settings like children’s bedrooms.
- Broaden the offence of creating an indecent image of a child to include material where an adult plays the role of a child.
- Introduce tighter regulation on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by platform systems.
- Introduce further restrictions on “nudification” technology, 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 adult platforms and act on complaints of illegal content.
The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the protections that have been enforced for years offline finally apply to the digital age.
