UK porn site traffic plunges since age checks – but VPN use up
Porn sites have seen a decline in UK-based traffic since age checks became mandatory earlier this year, but the use of software to get around viewing restrictions has increased.
Communications watchdog Ofcom has noted a sharp and sudden decline in visits to popular online porn sites since July 25, when the highly effective age assurance (HEAA) was introduced, according to its annual Online Nation report.
Pornhub, which remains the most visited adult content provider in the UK, saw a 1.5 million viewership drop in annual figures when the regulator compared 11.3 million viewers in August 2024 to 9.8 million viewers in the same month this year.
Adult sites in the UK have been forced to introduce age protection under the Online Safety Act, a measure that government officials and the communications watchdog claim will help prevent children from encountering sexually explicit content online.
Visitor numbers for the top 10 most visited pornography services in the UK subsequently settled “at a lower level” than before 25 July. According to the watchdog, in just one month between July and August this year, Pornhub saw a 31 percent drop in unique visitors, while xHamster saw a 28 percent drop and xvideos saw a 24 percent drop.
Meanwhile, VPN (virtual private network) use has more than doubled in the UK following age verification requirements; It rose from around 650,000 daily users before July 25 and reached over 1.4 million by mid-August 2025. This figure gradually dropped to around 900,000 in November.
The watchdog suggested that the drop in visitors could be due to “visitors’ unwillingness or inability to complete an age assurance check”, combined with an increase in VPN use.
“Use of a VPN can provide users with additional privacy and security. They can also be used to access geo-restricted sites by allowing the user to appear to be visiting from another country, thus allowing UK users to access pornography services without going through age checks.”
Critics such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have claimed that the Online Safety Act has practical problems, suggesting that children could get around the rules by using VPNs to mask their identity and location.
Ofcom’s data does not indicate whether the VPN surge is more linked to underage users or privacy-conscious adults trying to watch explicit content. But it follows research from Childnet last week in which almost a quarter (24 per cent) of teenagers said they had started using a VPN in the last three months; This is consistent with the number of people who started using VPNs a year ago (21 percent).
While the most popular reasons kids gave for using the software were online safety and privacy protection, 16 percent said they had used it to bypass parental controls, and 10 percent said they had used a VPN to look at things they shouldn’t have seen at their age. The research showed that for the first time, there was no increase in the rate of children using VPNs after age checks were introduced in July 2025.
Some adult sites, such as Chaturbate, have seen visitor numbers remain stable, according to the communications watchdog. Ofcom suggested this was because the site required payment for private “cam” shows and the purchase of tokens for interactions, so visitors “may already be used to some friction between themselves and paid adult content”.
