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Traffic to the UK’s most popular pornography sites has plummeted following the enforcement of new age-verification rules under the Online Safety Act.
According to data analytics firm Similarweb, major sites lost millions of visitors in the weeks following the July 25 deadline, signaling a significant shift in online viewing habits.
The new regulations mandate that sites allowing users to view explicit material must implement “highly effective age assurance” to protect minors. In compliance, major platforms like Pornhub and XVideos have introduced strict age checks, leading to a sharp drop in their UK user base.
Pornhub, the UK’s most visited adult site, saw its average daily visits fall from 3.2 million in July to just 2 million in the first nine days of August—a decrease of 47%. In the same period, traffic to XVideos also fell by 47%, while OnlyFans saw a drop of over 10%.
The dramatic decline in traffic to these regulated sites is directly linked to the new age verification measures, which act as a barrier to entry. However, this has led to a potential unintended consequence: a surge in traffic to smaller, less-regulated pornography sites that have not implemented the new checks.
Critics of the law had previously warned that this could push users toward more extreme and unregulated corners of the internet.
Further evidence of users seeking workarounds has emerged with the rise of Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps. In the days following the law’s enforcement, VPN apps became the most downloaded on the UK’s Apple App Store. These apps enable users to conceal their location, allowing them to bypass the UK’s new regulations and access non-compliant sites as if they were in another country.
The data indicates that while the new law is succeeding in restricting access on major platforms, it is also driving some users to seek out alternatives.
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