UK Online Safety Act Cuts Pornhub Traffic 77%

Since the UK began enforcing age verification under the Online Safety Act in late July — requiring ID uploads, selfie facial checks or credit‑card verification — Pornhub says its UK traffic has fallen about 77 percent. Ofcom reports visits to pornography sites broadly have fallen roughly a third in the three months after the rules took effect and notes operators face fines up to £18 million or 10% of global turnover for breaches. Many users appear to be bypassing checks by using VPNs and proxy services or migrating to non‑compliant sites; VPN downloads surged (one provider reported an ~1,800% jump) and app downloads across stores totaled millions. Pornhub’s parent, Aylo, and cybersecurity experts warn that website‑level enforcement across some 240,000 adult sites is difficult and have called for device‑level age verification as part of a mixed approach. Regulators say they can investigate traffic shifts to non‑compliant sites, but widespread VPN use and proxying mean the true scale and location of UK consumption may be obscured.