- Pornhub claims there has been a 77% drop in UK visitors since July
- People are turning to non-compliant VPN apps and websites
- Government says legislation is working as intended
There has been a huge change in people’s internet habits in the UK since age verification checks were introduced on adult websites – or at least that’s what it seems at first glance.
Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, doesn’t think so. Instead, it says people are turning to platforms that ignore the new requirements. “There are a number of sites whose traffic has increased exponentially, and these are sites that are not compliant,” Alex Kekesi, an executive at Aylo, told the BBC.
With around 240,000 adult platforms online, it’s no surprise that some have failed to meet government requirements.
But the huge drop in traffic cannot be explained solely by visiting other websites. Instead, it’s the result of a number of factors, including the widespread use of VPN apps, as people feel uncomfortable linking their personal data to their online activity.
What difference does a VPN make?
A VPN works by encrypting and redirecting your internet traffic through another server. This allows users to bypass geographic restrictions by accessing a website through a server based in another country.
So it’s no surprise that many people have used a VPN to bypass age checks. As Laura Tyrylytė, PR manager at Nord Security, told me: “It is naive to think that users have stopped watching such content; they simply opted for other methods. »
Around the time the legislation came into effect, Proton VPN saw a 1,400% increase in signups and, more recently, Cybernews reported that there were more than 10 million VPN downloads in the first half of the year.
But these alternatives are not always safe. People “could try free VPN apps that are known to harvest user data or from countries like China,” Tyrylytė says.
A recognizable VPN brand name, such as NordVPN and Proton VPN, is always best.
The government agency responsible for implementing the Online Safety Act, Ofcom, told the BBC that the law works as intended by preventing children from easily accessing adult material and that TechRadar certainly sees the potential benefits of the OSA.
Ofcom also said that fewer people are now using a VPN than in July and overall visits to pornographic websites in the UK have declined across the board.
We contacted Ofcom and requested more information on these figures, but they refused to comment officially.
What’s next for age verification in the UK?
Despite the years of debate that led to the Online Safety Act, it is still in its early stages and its long-term impact remains to be seen.
What is clear is that people will continue to find workarounds when they feel their privacy is threatened. The only question is whether these workarounds will end up putting their data even more at risk.
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