Porn traffic down in the UK, VPN use is up, but also declining
Since the Online Safety Act went into effect, internet traffic to adult websites in the United Kingdom has significantly decreased. That being said, the use of VPN software to bypass the new age verification rules has increased.
That’s what Ofcom, the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications, and postal supervisor in the United Kingdom, and Similarweb, a data firm from the United States, have told British news outlet The Guardian.
From July 25th, 2025, the day that the Online Safety Act went into effect, visitor numbers to all of the top 10 most visited pornography services in the UK have declined. This is because adult websites are obligated to implement “robust age checks” to verify the age of visitors.
According to The Guardian, visitor numbers to the 10 most visited adult sites in the UK have now settled at a “lower level” than before July 25th.
For example, the number of unique visitors to Pornhub, the largest pornography service provider in the UK, was 7.2 million last month, a decline of 36% since August 2024. Visits to Xvideos and Chaturbate, the next two biggest sites, fell by 27% and 18% respectively over the same period.
It’s unclear whether these users have switched to smaller porn sites or are consuming less porn. It’s also unknown how many British minors visited porn sites. What we do know is that days after the Online Safety Act went into effect, VPN downloads surged in the United Kingdom to bypass the new age verification legislation.
According to Ofcom, VPN usage more than doubled from 650,000 users to more than 1.4 million in mid-August. The number of VPN users currently stands at 900,000.
“Since August, VPN usage has continued to steadily decline. The level of daily VPN use is much lower than user numbers for porn services,” Ofcom told British media outlets.
On average, every day, 7.8 million visitors from the UK access adult services that have deployed age verification.
Shortly after the Online Safety Act went into effect, Ofcom launched investigations into four companies, which collectively run 34 pornographic sites, to see whether they complied with the country’s new age-check requirements.
One British porn company, AVS Group Ltd, was fined £1 million for failing to implement Highly Effective Age Assurance (HEAA) measures.
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