A very dissuasive device for visitors. Financial Times informs a drastic fall in the frequency of the main pornographic sites in the United Kingdom. A fall measured two weeks after the implementation of the online security law, a text carried by the British government to better govern the digital space of the country.
Between July 24, 2025, the day before the implementation of the online Security Law, and on August 8, two weeks later, the figures speak for themselves. 47% less visitors for Pornhub (the most visited porn site), 47% less also for xvideos or 39% less for Xhamster.
A dissuasive age verification
The main reason behind these drops is a measurement of the online security law, which requires age verification devices at the entrance to sites that offer adult content. To access it, the British must show that they are 18 or more. Then several authentication media are offered: provide an identity document, give your credit card number or take a photo or video of your face.
Then, instead of providing their personal data, half of the British preferred to continue on their way. This is the reason why many of them choose less known alternative sites, but are not subject to the restrictions imposed by the online security law. Pornhub has long warned Internet users against these small sites, sometimes doubtful.
But there is a sector that benefits from this chaos, VPNS. The latter can be used to overcome the Internet restrictions established in a country, making believe that we connect to the Internet from another country. As the BBC saw, three days after the implementation of the online security law, half of the most unloaded applications in the App Store were VPN. Some developers even say they saw their number of downloads multiplied by 19.
Soon the same destination in France?
Our British neighbors can spend a few weeks ahead of France. The Emmanuel Macron government has said many times that it wanted to protect French minors from pornographic content. After multiple skames with certain porn sites, age verification must be gradually implemented in France.
The porn industry giants, such as the Aylo Group (Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube), several times, expressed their dissatisfaction with the establishment of these devices. On July 15, the three sites in question voluntarily blocked their access in France as a sign of protest. According to the site, the average traffic in Pornhub in France decreased by 46% between May and August 2025.
But where he has been withdrawn, other very frequented sites (in this case Xhamster, Xvideos, Xnxx, Xhamsterlive and TNAFLIX) will have to establish an age verification process if they want to remain in the French territory. The latter have until August 25, 2025 to meet the new measures under penalty of being blocked.
As a reminder, age verification wants to hinder the strong increase in pornographic content consumption among French minors. According to Arcom, 21% of children aged 10 to 11 and more than half of children aged 12 to 17 go to porn places every month. This represents more than 2.3 million minor visitors per month.
Source: BFM TV
