LONDON—In the weeks following the official implementation of the Online Safety Act, traffic from the United Kingdom to Pornhub.com has dropped significantly.
At least, that is what several media outlets reported late last week. The Financial Times first reported, citing Similarweb data, that Pornhub experienced a 47 percent drop in traffic between July 24 and August 8. From the same data source and timeframe, XVideos saw a drop of 47 percent, and xHamster saw a 39 percent drop.
This is attributed to Ofcom's deadline for compliance with the Online Safety Act, which was July 25. Ofcom regulates all pornography pay sites and adult tube sites as platforms that host "legal but harmful" content, requiring them to maintain age verification and age-appropriate design.
AVN asked a spokesperson for Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, to confirm the reporting of The Financial Times.
"As we've seen in many jurisdictions around the world, there is often a drop in traffic for compliant sites and an increase in traffic for non-compliant sites," the spokesperson explained, referring to the pattern that Pornhub and Aylo's other websites have seen due to age verification laws or other impediments to users accessing them.
The Times also noted that VPN searches in the United Kingdom have climbed.
Google Trends data confirms that VPN search terms saw a spike in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Users can utilize a VPN to circumvent any age-gating, country block or restriction by simply spoofing their IP addresses to make it appear as if they are logging in from a different country.
VPNs have been noted as one of the major shortcomings of age verification laws in the United States and the online safety provisions of the U.K.'s Online Safety Act.
