According to The Spectator newsletter:

Pornhub says the number of British visitors to its website is down 77% since age verification checks were introduced under the Online Safety Act in July.

That means that more than 3/4 of its visitors think they won't pass age verification checks, which means they are likely to be underage (i.e. under 18).

This is really a shocking statistic if true and taken at face value.

According to the BBC:

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgkz3m3re1zo]

Pornhub is the most visited porn site in the world - and the 19th most visited on the entire web, according to data from Similarweb.

But the BBC also points out:

This [the drop in visitors] could be a consequence of people reducing their porn use but could also be partly explained by people visiting the site through alternative means such as a VPN, which masks a user's location.

Well maybe.

'People reducing their porn use' - I should coco.

And plenty of people accessing porn were probably already doing this via a VPN before the Online Safety Act came into force as it would be daft not to. And VPNs have been around for years.

One of the most popular VPNs, NordVPN, publishes statistics but does not include a breakdown of the type of sites its users are accessing.

VPN Central states one important reason for NordVPN's popularity:

Panama, where its headquarters is based, puts the provider outside the jurisdiction of Five Eyes and other surveillance alliances.

The latest stats do show that use of NordVPN in the UK has dropped by 10%

[https://vpncentral.com/nordvpn-statistics/]

You can find more interesting data about Pornhub via their 'year in review' here:

https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2024-year-in-review

Hawk Tuah anyone?