Christian policy group CARE has welcomed the introduction of the controversial Online Safety Act, saying that the requirement to include age verification on pornographic websites has led to a “massive drop in porn site traffic”.
Citing figures from Similarweb and Pornhub, the most popular pornography sites in Britain, CARE noted that in the two weeks following the imposition of the change the sites lost over a million visitors.
From 24 July, the day before the new rules, to 8 August, Pornhub’s traffic fell by 47 per cent. Other sites like XVideos apparently saw visitors fall by similar amounts.
Tim Cairns, Online Safety Lead at CARE, said, “On one level, these new figures are hardly a surprise because if you make porn harder to access, then you’d expect to see a drop in users.
“But what is critical to note is this means thousands of children have been rightly prevented from seeing porn online. This includes explicit content that depicts violence against women.
Cairns said that concerns around age verification being circumvented by VPNs have so far not come true.
It has asked that regulator Ofcom make an example of ay pornography sites failing to comply with the new requirements.
Some parts of the act are causing concern, though, with Carys Moseley of Christian Concern saying that it represents a threat the freedom of speech.
“The bill gives tech companies powers so they can decide what counts as ‘legal but harmful’," she said.
"Tech companies would also be liable to heavy fines if they fail to comply. What this means is that even content that isn’t illegal could end up being censored if companies consider it ‘harmful’.”
Critics have alleged that since the act became law online criticism of illegal immigration and the conflict in Gaza have sometimes been hidden by tech platforms in order to comply with the law.
