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Pornhub says UK visitors down 77% since age checks came in
- hmlwilliams 1y agoUK visitors not using a VPN down 77%
- DagsEoress 1y agoYou believe all children know how to operate a VPN?
- consp 1y agoAre you suggesting kids are not digitally versed and have no capability of searching and learning?
- random9749832 1y ago1. A number of apps have made using VPN a 1-click task. 2. Children aren't as well versed with tech as you think, just because they spend a lot of hours in front of a screen.
- hn_throw2025 1y ago2. Yeah, I am regularly irritated by old chestnut of “kids are tech geniuses unlike the helpless adults”. With few exceptions, they think WiFi/the Web/The Internet are the same thing and have no clue how any of it works deeper than the UI (just like most adults). In the UK at least, our “progressive” government shifted the focus in the late 90s from teaching basic CS concepts to using Microsoft Office applications. I hope it is slightly better now.
- Lio 1y ago> You believe all children know how to operate a VPN Yes. That’s exactly what we believe. Do you believe that 77% of UK Pornhub users suddenly stopped wanking? Seems pretty implausible to me.
- DagsEoress 1y agoThis all or nothing mentality is so disconnected from the real world. Of course some people started using VPNs, of course some children even started doing it. No law can prevent all occurrences of what it tries to prevent. But it can make it more difficult, and heighten the barrier of entry for children that are introduced to the internet.
- Lio 1y agoKids don’t start out knowing that you type pornhub.com to get porn. One of their friends sends them a link. Now they just send them a different link, one that goes via a free VPN. You don't need any new skills for that and it's not a "speedbump". All this law does is make it harder for adults to use non-porn websites like Reddit, Spotify or Bluesky. It’s not a good law. At the next election some portion of Labour voters will remember missteps like this and will vote for someone else because of it.
- ndsipa_pomu 1y ago> At the next election some portion of Labour voters will remember missteps like this and will vote for someone else because of it. Personally, I think their prosecution of peaceful protestors (Palestine supporters) whilst giving a free pass to right wing violent protestors will alienate their traditional left-wing base.
- raxxorraxor 1y agoI don't think the traditional left wing base is too enthused about their intifada brothers to be honest. And a specific subset of those probably would want to ban porn too.
- ndsipa_pomu 1y agoAs far as I can tell, the purpose of the law is to push children to use either free VPNs and proxies (which will likely make them less safe using the internet) or to visit less famous porn sites that are too niche to be targetted. So, we're pushing children towards the most dodgy porn sites possible and encouraging people to upload identifying information to the less dodgy porn sites. This law is not fit for the declared purpose at all.
- bitfilped 1y agoDo you think children are a significant portion of the porn traffic?
- InsideOutSanta 1y agoBased on my childhood memories, I would say kids are the most likely to figure out how to get a free VPN and look at porn that way. Or just find another porn site that doesn't adhere to the law.
- forgotoldacc 1y ago20 years ago, kids were using proxies and VPNs to get around forum bans. Kids today are most certainly still using VPNs.
- DagsEoress 1y agoI honestly doubt ipad kids are as tech savvy as 90s or 00s kids. Not only that, I'm sure some kids will figure it out. But not all.
- schnebbau 1y agoThis is the problem. Adults thinking children are useless. Don't you remember being a kid? Whenever there's a blocker (one case from my childhood was how to use net send to broadcast profanity across the network), someone will figure it out, and by the end of the day EVERYONE knows.
- zeristor 1y agoProgramming VCRs was famously something kids could understand.
- carus 1y agoMaybe not all, but kids pickup things fast. When I was young the school tried to block a popular flash games website, one lunch hour later and somehow we all learned how to use a VPN. I'd say I owe a lot of my technical ability to learning how to circumvent restrictions on school computers and whatever my parents tried to setup on the home computer.
- DagsEoress 1y agoI agree. My point is we shouldn't simply open the doors for this degenerate content and make it easily accessible for children. Children who are already addicted to porn will be more inclined to find a workaround. But new children who haven't been exposed yet will be less inclined.
- bearburger 1y agoCome on. Get out of your bubble and go touch grass. There are more restrictive countries than UK/EU/US will become in visible future. And customer-level censorship circumvention technologies have gone so far that most services are just one-button apps. And the children who can't press one button usually just don't have a phone.
- Ekaros 1y agoLot of them do. Especially hormonal teenagers who have both lot of time and energy to find solutions. Not to forgot the lure of forbidden.
- hyperjeff 1y agorelevant Dilbert: https://www.flubu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wpid-pornfilter1.png https://www.flubu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wpid-p...
- pogue 1y agoOperate one? You mean download an app and switch the VPN to "on"?
- plqbfbv 1y agoIt's not like they need to `sudo apt install openvpn` and tweak the config file manually and tinker with routes and firewall rules afterwards. Basically every youtube video for the past decade has been sponsored by a VPN service offering first-joiner discounts. My cousin uses a VPN and has no idea what it is and how it works, just that "he should protect himself while browsing". Those VPNs have invested massively in UX and ease of use so out of that 77% of users, I'd guess more than 80% of it switched to VPNs.
- ghusto 1y agoYou don't have children, I take it.
- brazukadev 1y agoYou believe 77% of Pornhub UK visitors are children?
- deaddodo 1y agoAny sort of gating will always lower certain web usage, that's obvious. It's also much more obvious that a taboo/illicit service asking you to, essentially, deanonymize yourself is going to be hit the hardest.
- kubb 1y agoThere were so many people saying that this isn’t going to work. Remember that when discussing any regulation. The „it’s impossible” and „let’s not bother” people are a scourge and they mustn’t be taken seriously.
- elyobo 1y agooh my sweet summer child https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45769504 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45769504
- niek_pas 1y agoThe article pretty clearly states that it’s likely this is at least partly attributable to VPN use.
- LtWorf 1y agoI mean they're all just using VPNs… I'm sure the VPN companies love the policy but other than that I'm not sure what problem they solved.
- vasco 1y agoWhat do you mean by worked? Worked to move people to other sources of porn or vpns?
- bengbwing 1y agoYes indeed, and also worth bearing in mind that, particularly as this is a male-dominated forum, many of the people commenting here will be habitual porngraphy consumers who will have a negative view of any mechanism that gets in the way of their consumption.
- diffeomorphism 1y ago
- anonym29 1y agoObviously this is because 77% of all pornhub viewers were underage, and NOT because privacy-infringing age checks create a deterrent effect that reduces all pornography consumption, which totally was NOT the goal all along by the puritanical fundamentalist religious groups backing this expansion of warrantless state surveillance. It was definitely to protect the kids and NOT to try to quash all depictions of human sexuality due to a fetish for appeasing the arbitrary whims of the invisible sky daddy, as told to us by the people who pinky promise they were speaking on behalf of invisible sky daddy.
- bfkwlfkjf 1y agoI appreciate the humour and sarcasm but often less is more. You should've just written "Obviously this is because 77% of all pornhub viewers were underage" and left it at that.
- Aeglaecia 1y agothere are plenty of valid reasons that unfettered access to pornography is harmful - imagine if you had private videos leaked on the net forever , or were exploited , or were trafficked to participate , etc. plz try save vitriol for when its really needed. also the reddit tier religious bashing looks really lame.
- johnisgood 1y ago> imagine if you had private videos leaked on the net forever , or were exploited , or were trafficked to participate How does this apply here?
- anonym29 1y agoIt doesn't, because laws that compelled sites like pornhub to take down nonconsentual porn already existed before the proposal for age verification. The people pushing the age verification will never admit this to you, often because they're either ignorant of the bigger picture or not engaging in good faith in the first place, seeing themselves as the clear-eyed moral ones bringing wisdom to us heathens who don't know any better.
- k8sToGo 1y agoIs it really down or do they just use a VPN
- DagsEoress 1y agoMost likely a mix. Not all children know how to operate a VPN.
- f33d5173 1y agoAs soon as one of them figures it out, they tell their friends, who tell their friends, and so on until all of them know.
- InsideOutSanta 1y agoThey don't even need to use a VPN, they just need to find a different porn site.
- heisenbit 1y agoDoes that mean porn is watched by 77% fewer people or does that mean it is watched elsewhere? It may just lead to a greater exposure to malware of the UK.
- INTPenis 1y agoI think the more striking question is, does that mean 77% of pornhub viewers are underage? Obviously not, a lot of them just don't want to identify themselves. But having worked in IT for 25 years and knowing how free some people are to use their government e-mail to sign up at porn websites, I wonder even if 50% are underage, that's a huge number.
- ytch 1y agoor the 77% user includes underage, and adults who don't trust age verification.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- wongarsu 1y agoAnother significant portion of the 77% will be people who now use a VPN to visit pornhub and are no longer identifiable as UK visitors
- davidwritesbugs 1y agoThis. I still use xnxx but via a VPN now, same for Pornhub users I'd guess
- squigz 1y agoThere are literally countless fully legitimate porn sites that aren't Pornhub and that won't give you "malware" It's not 1999 anymore. Stop going to sketchy sites to watch porn.
- michaelt 1y agoIn related news [1] "VPNs top download charts as age verification law kicks in [...] one app maker told the BBC it had seen an 1,800% spike in downloads." It's going to be interesting to see how this plays with voters at the next election. Politicians think this censorship is a vote-winner, presumably because on the doorstep voters are unlikely to talk about their love of porn. Yet in online spaces, this policy seems wildly unpopular - especially with the high profile leaks of age validation services' user data; the government's legal battles with Wikipedia; Steam's demand for credit cards (debit cards are more common in the UK); and sites leaving the UK market all together. I suppose we'll get to see whose polling is more accurate at the next election. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn72ydj70g5o https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn72ydj70g5o
- bearburger 1y ago> how this plays with voters at the next election Well. With the ageing population and the fact that older people are more conservative and they turn out to vote more often I would doubt that anything would change. At least not because of this.
- highwaylights 1y agoIt’s not that the UK government believes censoring porn is a vote winner so much as they really want to use “think of the kids” as a cudgel to widespread surveillance. In other countries (not least the US) there’s an expectation of privacy which doesn’t really exist in the UK. It’s not seen as a right by any major party or particularly valued by the public at large (“nothing to hide nothing to fear” etc). The government still really wants E2E encryption banned here (as nonsensical as that is). They don’t see any of this as a vote loser, as none of the alternative parties see it any differently. Personally I’m kind of happy about this gating even if I disagree on principle, but they’ve already indicated that they have no line. They’ve been very open about seeing everything you say and do.
- rich_sasha 1y agoDespite all this talk about privacy, US would appear to be leading the free world in surveillance and illiberalism right now. It is very reminiscent to me of the radical free speech of Twitter and Republicans, which in practice means censorship. I'm not saying UK is great, but surely ahead of what the US is doing by a wide margin.
- mrweasel 1y agoIf nothing else it is an interesting experiment. I'm just not sure what we should expect the result to be, both in terms of teen mentality and industry impact.
- defrost 1y agoI'd expect teens entering UK industry to more mentally adept at bypassing gatekeeping.
- b800h 1y agoInterestingly, Google is still allowed to show explicit search results from these sites, which is absurd, and is a gap in the law, as now "search" sites have appeared which just do the same thing, but use videos.
- jasonvorhe 1y agoAt least some grease in the Digital ID machinery.
- bengbwing 1y agoGiven the harms of the pornography industry to both those directly exploited by it and those who consume its output, this is excellent news, even if the statistic only reflects a smaller deterrent effect due to VPN use and so on. Certainly a win for drafters of the OSA, despite the controversy stirred up over its enactment.
- DagsEoress 1y agoIt's great news. The purpose is to make it as difficult as possible for children to access this type of content. Of course some will find workarounds. But if laws are supposed to be 100% foolproof then no law actually does anything.
- bitfilped 1y agoChildren aren't generating this traffic, people have just switched to VPNs and don't show up as UK users anymore. What do you think kids do all day exactly?
- DagsEoress 1y agoThe same things I did as a kid. If you really believe all children are innocent, and don't watch porn, you are delusional.
- squigz 1y agoWouldn't it be just as delusional to think that those kids are not going to just go find it elsewhere? And now those "elsewheres" are going to be places that don't care about things like performer or content safety. Is that really going to help solve the alleged issues, both with the porn industry and with people watching it too much? (To say nothing of the second order effects of something like this, like the massive privacy intrusion for adult citizens, or the theft/sharing of IDs to get around these laws)
- random9749832 1y agoCivilisation would be better off without porn but this was obviously always a non-solution. In fact Google doesn't even censor its images still.
- squigz 1y agoIs Safe Search not a thing anymore?
- random9749832 1y agoyou mean the thing you can turn off in a click?
- squigz 1y agoAre you saying that blocks that are trivial to bypass are not very useful? Hmmm... (Also, I'll point out there are parental control settings for Google accounts)
- irusensei 1y agoI'm so glad there are people like you with opinions about what's best for me and civilization.
- BergAndCo 1y agoI'm so glad that the knobs who hate the idea of perpetuating civilization self-select out of the gene pool.
- random9749832 1y agoI don't know about you but "defending pornography to strangers" wasn't on my bucket list. Glad you got it out of your system.
- irusensei 1y agoI call it personal freedom. I'd like very much to remove moral busybodies from my system but it seems very hard for people who have a grand plan for society to top coercing and leave me alone. Its none of your business if people voluntarily produce it and its also none of your business if people voluntarily market it between each other.
- thefz 1y agoI guess some other places got an increase that summed up are close to that 77% :)
- yawpitch 1y agoShockingly, visits from datacenters just inside the EU have more than tripled in the same time frame.
- MattPalmer1086 1y agoThis is really surprising. 23% of pornhub users in the UK are willing to identify themselves to access porn. I guess there are some who really want their porn and either don't know about the alternatives (VPN) or genuinely don't mind handing over identifying info to do it.
- halJordan 1y agoIn any other sexual context you'd be saying "wow such sexual liberty" "theyre so brave being straight up about themselves." That watching porn is still an immoral act is implicit in your surprise.
- MattPalmer1086 1y agoYou are putting words in my mouth, maybe think about phrasing your points in a less personal way in future? I don't actually see watching porn as immoral, although I am aware that there are a large number of people who do. Hence my surprise that so many people were willing to tie their identities to it.
- array_key_first 1y agoMorality is stupid and made up. Level up your critical thinking skills, stop using "morality" as an intellectual crutch.
- mieses 1y ago3000 years of philosophy or an HN post? Who the hell are you, "array_key"? Make an argument.
- array_key_first 1y agoPhilosophy is real. But if you knew anything about philosophy, you'd know it's not "this is immoral because I say so". 99% of modern morality is "because I said so". If that's the level of thinking you're applying to things, then you are a stupid person. Sorry. There are plenty of legitimate arguments against porn. "Ughhh sex icky!!" is not one of them. Purity is not an argument. Religion is not an argument. Saying something is immoral is not an argument.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- salemh 1y ago[dead]
- amai 1y agoDoe that imply 77% of the visitors were underage?
- Thiez 1y agoIt implies that 77% of UK visitors were not prepared to upload an id to watch porn. They either stopped watching, used a VPN, or moved to smaller and less regulated sites without age verification. The remaining 23% will also include teens that uploaded a fake id.
- amai 1y agoAnd France visitors are down by 100%, see https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/04/tech/pornhub-exits-france-age-verification-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/04/tech/pornhub-exits-france...
- mieses 1y agoUK wouldn't need this if their education system and culture didn't produce depraved and degenerate people, not to say anything of the ones they import. Neither the policy nerds nor Reform can fix the culture. It will come from below or not at all.