UK porn sites see traffic drop after age verification law
What's the story
The UK's leading porn sites have witnessed a massive drop in traffic following the implementation of stringent age verification laws on July 25. The new regulations require users to verify their identity before accessing adult content, resulting in a major decline in visitors for platforms like Pornhub and XVideos. The impact has been so severe that it has left both the adult industry and privacy advocates reeling.
Traffic decline
Pornhub witnessed a 47% drop in visits
Data from analytics firm Similarweb indicates that Pornhub, the UK's most popular porn site, witnessed a 47% drop in visits during the first two weeks of age verification enforcement. The site's daily visits plummeted from around 3.2 million in July to about two million in early August. Other platforms like XVideos and xHamster also saw similar declines of 47% and 39%, respectively.
Market impact
Mid-sized platforms describe catastrophic impact
The new age verification law has affected all top 90 adult sites, with monthly visits from the UK dropping by a whopping 23%. This translates to tens of millions of pageviews lost in just under three weeks. One mid-sized UK platform operator said their analytics dashboard "looked like a heart attack on a graph" after the law came into effect.
Regulatory measures
What is the Online Safety Act?
The Online Safety Act mandates that any site where more than a third of the content is pornographic must verify Uthat K visitors are over 18. This can be done by uploading a passport or driving license, using facial recognition, or entering credit card details. The government defends this move as a measure to protect children from harmful content on the internet.
Privacy fears
Privacy advocates raise concerns
Digital rights advocates, including the Open Rights Group, have raised alarms over the creation of a database linking people's identities to their porn habits. They argue that this poses a major privacy risk. Despite these concerns, the UK's communications regulator Ofcom has already launched investigations against over 30 sites for possible non-compliance with the new law.
User behavior
Increase in VPN usage
Since late July, VPN providers have seen a surge in UK sign-ups, some as high as 60% week-on-week. This trend complicates the data landscape as a British user accessing through a Paris server appears to analytics tools like a French visitor. Some smaller sites have even witnessed an increase in traffic since the enforcement of age verification laws, especially foreign-based platforms that chose not to comply with UK rules.