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Charlotte Edwards & Chris Vallance, two technology reporters, recently reported that the number of visitors to the most popular pornography sites in the UK has significantly decreased following the implementation of enhanced age verification rules. According to new figures from data analytics firm Similarweb, leading adult site Pornhub alone lost over one million visitors in a span of just two weeks. This decline in traffic can be attributed to the introduction of advanced age verification checks on major adult websites such as Pornhub on 25 July, in compliance with the Online Safety Act.
Data experts at Similarweb compared the daily average user figures for popular pornography sites from 1 to 9 August with the figures for July. The analysis revealed that Pornhub, the UK’s most visited adult website, experienced a 47% decrease in traffic between 24 July and 8 August. Similarly, traffic to other major adult sites like XVideos and OnlyFans also saw a sharp decline during the same period. Despite this decrease in traffic to compliant sites, the data indicated that some smaller and less regulated pornography sites actually saw an increase in visits.
Following the implementation of the new online safety rules in the UK, VPN apps became the most downloaded apps on Apple’s App Store in the country. VPNs are capable of masking a user’s online location, allowing them to access the internet as if they were in a different country. This surge in VPN downloads could potentially make it more difficult to track the number of users visiting specific sites from particular locations. Media regulator Ofcom estimates that around 14 million people in the UK watch online pornography and has outlined several methods that websites can use to verify the age of their users, including credit card checks, photo ID matching, and age estimation through selfies.
Despite the positive impact of the age verification rules on reducing underage access to explicit content on mainstream sites, critics have raised concerns that the changes could inadvertently push users towards more extreme and unregulated content on the darker corners of the internet, such as the dark web. This potential shift in user behavior highlights the ongoing challenges and complexities of regulating online content to create a safer digital environment for all users
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