Traffic from British users to some of the world’s most popular pornography websites has almost halved since new age verification rules came into force in the UK, with Pornhub losing more than 1 million visitors in just two weeks.
Media regulator Ofcom on July 25 began enforcing the new requirements for adult sites to check the age of all UK users under the Online Safety Act, one of the world’s toughest new regimes aimed at protecting children on the internet.
Users have, among other options, been asked to upload identity documents, enter credit card details or scan their faces with a camera to prove they are over 18. Pornhub, the UK’s most-visited adult site, experienced a 47 per cent drop in traffic between July 24, the day before the rules came into force, and August 8, according to data from Similarweb, a web analytics and digital market intelligence provider.
Visits to XVideos, another leading adult site, were also down 47 per cent over the same timeframe, while traffic to xHamster, the third most popular porn site, fell 39 per cent over the period. Pornhub’s average daily visits fell from 3.2mn in July to 2.0mn in the first nine days of August, while xHamster dropped from 1.7mn to 1.2mn month on month.
Pornhub said: “As we’ve seen in many jurisdictions around the world, there is often a drop in traffic for compliant sites and an increase in traffic for non-compliant sites.” Neither xHamster nor XVideos immediately responded to a request for comment. The introduction of the UK’s age verification scheme coincided with a huge rise in British usage of virtual private networks, services which disguise a user’s online location.
Several VPN apps shot to the top of the UK’s iPhone App Store charts as providers, including Proton and Nord Security, touted 10-fold increases in usage. Anyone using a VPN in the UK would appear in Similarweb’s data as if they were accessing a site from another country. It is unclear to what extent the sudden change in traffic patterns to Pornhub and its rivals can be attributed to VPN usage.
Ofcom announced ahead of the introduction of the new rules that several major porn providers, including Pornhub, had agreed to impose effective age checks to comply with the new rules. But many waited until the July 25 deadline before doing so. The dramatic drop in visitors to adult sites was not mirrored in social networking sites such as Elon Musk’s X and Reddit, which had relatively steady traffic figures after introducing age checks last month, according to Similarweb.
Britain’s new online safety rules are designed to prevent children under the age of 18 from accessing sites that carry pornography as well as harmful material that relates to self-harm, eating disorders or suicide. The law, which was passed in 2023 but is being implemented in phases, is a global test case in forcing tech companies to take greater responsibility for protecting children online, as the EU, Australia and several US states also look to impose age assurance requirements for certain sites.
Ofcom’s research has shown that 8 per cent of children aged 8-14 in the UK, and 19 per cent of 13 to 14-year-old boys, have visited an online porn site in a month. The law’s objectives are widely supported by the general public, but its implementation has met with a backlash over privacy concerns, as well as complaints from some in the US government and Silicon Valley over its purported impact on free speech.
The figures from Similarweb provide the first indication of how British internet users are responding to the new online safety regime, but the impact may moderate as people adjust to the new rules or learn how to use age verification tools. Visitors to individual websites can vary widely day by day depending on a wide range of factors, from the weather to big sporting events.
Total monthly visits to the 90 largest adult sites fell 23 per cent from July to August, according to Similarweb, suggesting wide variance between the very top sites and less well-known providers. Some smaller sites had dramatic traffic increases.
Ofcom is assessing compliance with the law and its wider impact. The regulator has started investigating four companies, responsible for running more than 30 porn sites, over whether they are doing enough to stop under-18s from accessing their services.
Source: ft.com
