PORNHUB will ban all new UK users from next month in a bid to protect minors.
The adult entertainment platform confirmed only those who already have accounts will be access content from February 2.
It means anyone attempting to access Pornhub in the UK after this date be redirected to “a wall” instead of site content.
The same restrictions will apply to other porn sites owned by Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, including YouPorn and Redtube.
It comes as Aylo argued age verification measures brought in by the Online Safety Act hadn’t worked.
Bosses claimed it had only “diverted traffic to darker, unregulated corners of the internet”.
CYBER SHOCK
Pornhub hit by huge security breach as 200 million users’ search history stolen
A SAD SITE
Pornhub reveals how much UK views have PLUMMETED since strict age checks came in
New UK rules since July require porn sites to carry out strict age verification checks through tools such as facial imagery or credit card identification.
Those who fail to do so can be hit with eye-watering fines of up to £18 million ($25 million) or 10 percent of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.
In the most serious cases, UK regulator Ofcom can take legal action to block access to the site or platform concerned from the UK.
Figures cited by Aylo also showed the strict measures had seen website footfall plummet by a staggering 77%.
But Ofcom claimed the age checks had been successful in preventing children from accessing harmful material.
A spokesperson explained today how porn services now have the choice between implementing the age checks, or blocking access to their sites in the UK.
Alex Kekesi, head of community and brand at Aylo, said the move to restrict UK access had been a “difficult decision”.
She said: “Our sites, which host legal and regulated porn, will no longer be available in the UK to new users, but thousands of irresponsible porn sites will still be easy to access.”
Ms Kekesi argued the OSA had “failed to achieve” it’s objective after six months of age check requirements being in place.
A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, added: “The Online Safety Act is clear: online pornographic services must stop children accessing this material by putting robust age assurance in place.
“It does not stop adults viewing legal content, and services do not need to leave the UK – they simply need to ensure under 18s cannot access it. There are a range of ways to do this.”
Nevertheless Solomon Friedman of Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), which owns Aylo, said: “The problem here, however, is not the regulator – it is the law.
“You have a dedicated regulator working in good faith, but unfortunately, the law they are operating under cannot possibly succeed.”
Emma Drake, partner of online safety and privacy at law firm Bird and Bird, added: “The determined will find alternative routes, like the VPNs or the new entrants Aylo mentioned, but adding barriers to the most well-known sites can still protect a very large number of children who won’t make that effort.”
VPNs allow people to operate online as if they’re in a different country, where restrictions are not in place.
Stats showed VPN app downloads skyrocketed in the UK after age verification requirements took effect on July 25.
This comes after Pornhub users were warned last month that the platform had been hacked in a major security breach.
Premium users were told their data could potentially have been stolen.
Hacking group ShinyHunters claimed to have accessed sensitive information such as email addresses, search history and activity.
Pornhub has since reached out to more than 200 million premium users, warning their data may have been stolen during the breach.
Hackers are said to be extorting the pornography platform after search and watch history was reportedly stolen.
THE SHOCKING STATS
Latest figures show the scale of adult content consumption online…
Ofcom stats:
- Around 8% children aged 8-14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month.
- 15% of 13–14-year-olds accessed online porn in a month.
- Boys aged 13-14 are the most likely to visit a porn service, significantly more than girls the same age (19% vs 11%).
- Our research tells us that around three in ten (29%) or 13.8m UK adults use porn online.
- Pornhub is the most used site in the UK – Ofcom research says 18% (8.4m) visited it in one month.
Children’s Commissioner stats:
Of the 64% who said that they had ever seen online pornography:
- The average age at which children first see pornography is 13. By age nine, 10% had seen pornography, 27% had seen it by age 11 and half of children who had seen pornography had seen it by age 13.
- We also find that young people are frequently exposed to violent pornography, depicting coercive, degrading or pain-inducing sex acts; 79% had encountered violent pornography before the age of 18.
- Pornography is not confined to dedicated adult sites. We found that Twitter was the online platform where young people were most likely to have seen pornography.
Image credit: Alamy
