• Source:JND
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UK Online Safety Act: The UK government’s initiative to implement age restrictions on porn sites has shown a positive impact, as the number of people visiting the most popular pornography sites has dropped sharply, BBC reported on Wednesday. Citing data analytics firm Similarweb, it reported the leading adult site, Pornhub, lost more than one million visitors in just two weeks.

Why did UK porn sites see a sudden drop?

As per the report, Pornhub, which had witnessed a record 3.2 million average daily visitors in July, has reported a significant drop to 2 million in the first nine days of August. Notably,
Pornhub saw a 47 per cent drop in UK traffic after new rules kicked in. The site was the most-visited adult content platform in the UK before the changes. Data from Similarweb shows the traffic decline from July 24 to August 8.

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"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,” a spokesperson for Pornhub told the BBC.

What is the UK Online Safety Act?

The UK Online Safety Act says sites must make it harder for under-18s to see explicit material. Pornhub and other major adult websites already introduced advanced age checks from 25 July.
However, some people still circumvent age-verification laws easily with well-known tools such as virtual private networks (VPNs). It reroutes requests to visit porn websites across various public networks.

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How to verify age verification for porn sites in the UK?

Here are the seven age verification methods recommended by Ofcom, allowing users to choose from various options:

- Facial Age Estimation: A photo or video of your face is analyzed to estimate your age.
- Open Banking: Your bank confirms your age (over 18) through secure access to your account info.
- Digital Identity Services: Digital ID wallets store and share age-verifying info securely.
- Credit Card Age Checks: A valid credit card (only issuable to those over 18) confirms your age.
- Email-Based Age Estimation: Your email address is used to estimate your age based on linked online services.
- Mobile Network Operator Age Checks: Your mobile number's age filters are checked to confirm you're over 18.
- Photo-ID Matching: A selfie is compared to a photo ID to verify your age and identity.