U.K.’s Age-Check Law Drives Traffic to Unregulated Porn Sites, Igniting Debate Over Unintended Consequences

The implementation of age-verification rules under the Online Safety Act in the UK has reportedly led to a notable impact on web traffic, according to recent findings.

Under the new regulations, pornography websites are mandated to authenticate users’ ages through various means, such as facial recognition and driver’s license checks. Additionally, online platforms are required to prevent minors from accessing adult content, leading significant platforms like Bluesky and Reddit to begin age-verification processes for some users.

To assess the law’s impact, a study was conducted on the top 90 porn sites in the UK based on visitor data from Similarweb. The research revealed that 14 sites still do not enforce age checks, experiencing a substantial surge in traffic. One site even reported a doubling of year-over-year traffic.

Simultaneously, numerous websites appear to have complied with the law while expressing criticism, linking to petitions calling for repeal, or offering guidance on bypassing the regulations.

John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, stated that this situation is “a classic example of unintended consequences,” and further commented that the law inadvertently channels traffic towards sites without age verification while reducing traffic to compliant platforms.