The impact of age verification: VPN use doubles, porn traffic plummets

Porn has taken a hit in the UK in the wake of the introduction of compulsory age verification this year, according to communications regulator Ofcom.

VPN usage more than doubled, while porn viewership plummeted following the enforcement of age checks, per Ofcom's Online Nation report, released Wednesday.

Prior to July 25, when age verification became mandatory in the UK, VPNs had around 650K daily users. By mid-August, 1.5 million users were accessing VPNs, and by November that number had declined to 900K.

Porn sites, meanwhile, saw a sharp drop in users in the immediate aftermath of the law coming into effect, according to the report. Pornhub, the largest UK porn service, saw a dramatic decrease in traffic in the month after age checks came into play. In August, Pornhub's total website visitors was down by 1.5 million compared to August 2024 (11.3 million in Aug. 2024 compared to 9.8 million in Aug. 2025). Since then, traffic to the top 10 most-visited porn services has stayed at a "lower level" than prior to July.

The UK's new Online Safety Act states that websites with explicit content are legally required to install age-checks for all users, so minors don't access the content. Any websites or apps that fail to comply will be liable for fines of £18 million or 10 percent of worldwide revenue.

Five million age checks are now completed on a daily basis in the UK, according to the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA). And, per Ofcom's report, 7.8 million visitors from the UK are accessing adult sites which have rolled out age checks.

Age checks are not only impacting those accessing pornography online. Newsletter platform Substack announced in Nov. 2025 that it would require UK users to complete age checks in order to comply with the law. Dating apps including Feeld, Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble also announced that they would comply with the country's requirements.

Child safety is at the core of the Online Safety Act. That being said, research shows that age verification laws do not succeed in keeping minors away from adult content.

As Mashable associate editor Anna Iovine has reported, "Experts have long told Mashable that these laws won't work for their intended purpose of keeping minors off pornographic websites." Experts have also expressed serious concerns about the broader impact of these laws on the way adults access the entire internet, not just porn.