UKS New Online age Verification Law Drives Traffic to Unchecked Pornography Sites
LONDON – The united Kingdom’s recently enforced Online Safety Act age-check rules are producing an unintended outcome: a surge in traffic to pornography websites that don’t verify user ages, while sites complying with the law are seeing potential visitors diverted elsewhere. The Washington Post reported on the early effects of the legislation, which requires adult websites to confirm users are over 18, frequently enough through methods like facial scans or ID verification.
The law, intended to protect children from accessing harmful content, is creating a digital divide where compliant platforms face reduced traffic and those avoiding verification benefit from increased viewership. An analysis by the Post of the top 90 pornography sites based on UK visitor data from Similarweb revealed 14 sites still operating without age checks. All 14 experienced a meaningful increase in traffic, with one site reporting a doubling of visitors year-over-year.
The Online Safety Act mandates that online platforms prevent children from being exposed to adult content, leading to age verification measures on sites like Bluesky and Reddit for some users. However, many websites are simultaneously complying with the law while voicing opposition, linking to petitions for its repeal, or even providing workarounds for users.
“this is a textbook illustration of the law of unintended consequences,” said John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen lab, to the Post. “The law suppresses traffic to compliant platforms while driving users to sites without age verification.” The findings raise concerns about the effectiveness of the law in achieving its stated goal and highlight the challenges of regulating online content.
