Pornhub'S Uk Traffic Plummets: Are Age Verification Rules Changing The Game?

UK's New Online Safety Act Shakes Up Adult Content Access

Well, darlings, it looks like Pornhub is having a rather dry spell this August - and not just because its mostly male audience is off on family vacations. The UK’s latest Online Safety Act has rolled out some spicy new rules, requiring users to prove their age with credit card details, bank info, mobile contracts, or even facial recognition. Talk about a mood killer!

Since the legislation dropped on July 25, traffic to Pornhub has nearly halved. Data from Similarweb shows a jaw-dropping 47% dip in visitors between July 24 and August 8. Other adult platforms aren’t immune either - OnlyFans reportedly saw a 10% drop, though whispers suggest their ban on model Bonnie Blue might share some blame.

So, should we pop the champagne? It’s hard not to cheer a little when measures meant to protect kids - who, shockingly, first encounter explicit content at an average age of 13 in the UK - might also be giving some grown-ups a much-needed break from endless scrolling.

A Win for Safety or Just a Temporary Hiccup?

Let’s not get too carried away with the victory dance just yet. Back before these rules kicked in, online forums were buzzing with frustrated gents - 73% of UK porn users are male, by the way - grumbling about how child safety was cramping their style. Now, it seems a chunk of them might have logged off for good. Ouch, that’s gotta sting!

'If these barriers help even a few people step away from a harmful habit, while keeping kids safe, isn’t that worth a little inconvenience?' muses a digital safety advocate.

But here’s the kicker: breaking a habit isn’t easy, though entering your full card details on a porn site might just be the push some needed. University College London researchers suggest forming new habits can take 18 to 255 days, but they probably didn’t factor in the dread of potential data leaks from adult sites. I’ve spoken to men struggling with porn addiction, numbly chasing darker content for a thrill, desperate to stop but unable to. Could this be their unexpected lifeline?

Workarounds and Unanswered Questions

Before we get too hopeful, let’s address the elephant in the room - VPNs. Virtual Private Networks, which mask a user’s location, skyrocketed to the top of the UK Apple App Store downloads right after the rules hit. So, while Pornhub’s numbers look bleak, many users might just be sneaking past the age checks with a digital disguise.

Then there’s the mystery of who’s actually stepping away. Are we talking about casual browsers who can’t be bothered with the hassle of verification, or those deep in the rabbit hole of violent content? The data’s murky, and we can’t quite pin down the full impact just yet.

Still, I can’t help but wonder if some of these guys might one day tip their hats to Baroness Kidron, the fierce campaigner behind this legislation. She’s compared the rules to making kids 'climb out of a window' instead of handing them the keys to explicit content. If a few adults are also too lazy to scale that wall, isn’t that a small step forward - even if they’re grumbling about it?