British visits to porn websites without age verification have skyrocketed
Portals with pornographic content are actually required to check the age of visitors from the UK. However, several do not do this – and are now growing rapidly.
(Image: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock.com)
Porn websites that do not comply with the new age verification requirement in the UK have seen a massive increase in visits. This was the result of an analysis by the Washington Post, which analyzed a total of 90 portals that distribute pornographic content. As the US newspaper explains, it found 14 sites that do not comply with the new obligation at all. According to data from Similarweb, all of them have seen a massive increase in traffic, with the number of visits doubling or even tripling compared to the previous year. At the same time, the newspaper also found out that portals that are apparently trying to comply with the requirements are sometimes doing so "strangely" or "oddly". One expert speaks of "unintended consequences".
Very different approaches
The British obligation to implement "highly effective" age verification measures for sites with user-generated pornographic material has been in force since July 25. After the major providers of such portals initially resisted, they finally gave in and complied with the requirements. Shortly afterward, initial analyses appeared to confirm the warnings issued by providers, with traffic from the UK to portals that verify age plummeting. At the time, however, it could only be assumed that providers who did not adhere to this were benefiting at the same time, but the Washington Post has now confirmed this according to its own information.
During its research, the US newspaper found portals that only display the age verification request after a video has already been viewed for a while. Others show pornographic advertisements or preview images, even to those visitors who have not proven that they are old enough. Some sites also explain how to bypass the blocks using the Tor browser, for example. However, many would merely link to an anonymous blog post criticizing the obligation and in one case would point the way to a petition against the underlying law. It is unknown how many people in the UK use VPN services to access the sites, their visits would then no longer be attributed to the UK.
Videos by heise
The Washington Post has forwarded the result of the settlement to the British media regulator Ofcom, which has declined to comment on individual portals. In an initial investigation of sites that do not comply with the obligation, the newspaper says it has only found one of the 14 that do not currently comply. The age verification requirement is intended to protect minors from content that is harmful to minors, and social networks and portals for communication between users must also comply with it. However, initial analyses have not yet identified a comparable shift in the number of visits to such services.
(mho)
