UK porn web traffic plummets after age verification law

Pornography websites are seeing a sharp decline in traffic from the United Kingdom after the government required stricter age verification this summer.

Visits to adult websites dropped by about one-third since July when the new rules took effect under the Online Safety Act, according to Ofcom, the nation’s communications regulator. 

Some sites saw even steeper declines. Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, said traffic to its platform fell by 77%. 

“We were honestly shocked,” Alex Kekesi, Aylo’s head of community and brand, told the Financial Times. 

The law requires all adult websites operating in the United Kingdom to verify users are 18 or older before accessing explicit material. Some sites use text messages or email codes for verification, while others require credit card or facial recognition checks. 

The effort comes after years of concern that children could easily stumble upon pornographic content online. Ofcom said the goal is to make the internet safer for minors. 

Critics note major tech and entertainment companies have often shown shockingly little interest in moral accountability for content that harms young minds. The new rules represent a rare instance of government action aligning, at least partly, with Christian values of protecting children and encouraging virtue. 

The implementation has been imperfect. Aylo and other companies argue smaller sites can still evade the requirements. Some users have turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass age checks, and traffic to noncompliant sites reportedly rose after July. 

Still, Ofcom says the 10 most popular pornographic sites – representing about a quarter of UK porn traffic – now use age verification. It added more than three-quarters of the top 100 sites are covered. 

Ofcom has launched investigations into 62 services suspected of ignoring the new law. 

“Protecting children online is a top priority for the government,” a government spokesman said. 

While some complain about inconvenience, many parents view the change as long overdue. They see it as a small but meaningful victory in a culture that too often normalizes degeneracy instead of safeguarding innocence. 

In the United States, 25 of the 50 states have age verification laws to visit pornographic websites. Republicans control most states that have passed such laws. The first law took effect in Louisiana at the start of 2023, and other states have quickly followed suit.