Traffic to pornographic websites in the United Kingdom dropped significantly after the implementation of age-verification rules on July 25, under a new law requiring official documents (e.g. ID) to certify that a user is 18+.
Data specialists at Similarweb compared daily average traffic figures for popular pornographic sites between August 1–9 with July’s daily averages, and found that Pornhub’s traffic fell by 47% between July 24 and August 8. At the same time, the average number of visits dropped to 2 million from 3.2 million.
VPN applications, which “mask” a user’s real location online, became the most downloaded apps on Apple’s App Store in the UK after July 24.
During the same period, traffic to XVideos, another leading adult website, also dropped by 47%, while OnlyFans saw a decline of more than 10%. However, the data also showed that some smaller and less regulated pornographic websites recorded an increase in visits.
A Pornhub spokesperson told the BBC: “As we’ve seen in many jurisdictions around the world, traffic often decreases to websites that comply with the rules and increases to those that do not.”
Following the introduction of age-verification rules, VPN apps became the most downloaded category on Apple’s UK App Store.
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