Age-verification regulations scheduled to take effect next month may result in large-scale non-compliance by UK users, with a majority instead choosing virtual private networks (VPNs) or other work-arounds in order to avoid entering personal data, according to a new study of over 26K xHamster users in Britain.
Among the findings:
* Almost half (47.4%) of respondents were not aware of the regulations scheduled to take effect in April, 2019.
* Fewer than 40% of respondents plan on complying. More say they will use a VPN to evade the regulations.
* Data privacy concerns (74.7%), and government intrusion (63.5%) top the list of concerning issues
* Only 4% believe the regulations will be completely effective. Nearly 60% say they will not be effective.
xHamster, which is complying with the regulations, conducted its 2019 Age-Verification Compliance Study over the course of six days in March, asking UK visitors to the site whether they were aware of the regulations, whether they planned to comply, and which methods they would use to do so.
“We launched this survey to help us understand how our own visitors planned to react, and were shocked by the large number we saw who were not planning to comply,” said Alex Hawkins, Vice President of xHamster.
A majority of respondents said that, given the option of a VPN or offline, non-age-verified material, they’d go around the system—a "Sexit," in which vast numbers of adult content users either abandon regulated sites, or use a VPN to avoid detection by British authorities.
“We support efforts to limit access to adult material by under 18s, and we will be complying with the UK regulations,” said Hawkins. “However, the data seems to show that a vast majority of porn users will abandon the UK regulations, either by leaving UK internet space, or by abandoning online content altogether. Such a 'Sexit' of nearly 60% of current adult content consumers has major implications, not just for adult sites, but for the BBFC which has designed the regulations."
xHamster's 2019 Age Verification Compliance Study may be found here. Raw data, analysis and crosstabs are available upon request.
