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https://www.ft.com/content/618f07cb-3cd8-42ff-af63-29118d305cbe

UK porn site traffic plunges as age verification rules take effect

Pornhub loses more than 1mn visitors in two weeks after Online Safety Act comes into force

Big win for the OSA. We should see a boost to productivity.

More like big boost for VPN companies, who are all foreign owned. Great for the economies of a number of Eastern European countries.

VPN yada yada. Fact is, there'll be fewer men and boys watching porn because some friction has been introduced into the access protocols. A good thing imo.

Not an easy thing to measure, but if I were to bet on the number of people accessing such sites iths month vs last month, I’d say that the number will be pretty much identical.

Making an activity harder to do leads to fewer people doing it.

Why should viewing porn be an exception to this?

It’s the online equivalent of the Chancellor putting 10p on a pack of cigarettes in the Budget.

If you want that (imperfect) comparison it's like a price hike AND having to produce an "I'm a drug addict" card to complete the purchase.

Anyway, we'll see who's right. There will be a consensus on the matter fairly soon.

We know that VPN's became the most downloaded app in the UK, google searches for VPN's went through the roof and so on. Maybe that's all just so we can read the news that's been redacted?

So what. VPN use rises and this mitigates the impact. Mitigates is not the same as eliminates.

What makes you think all porn users are doing this?

Having been 15 during the age of the internet. Using a VPN is trivially easy. Every male over the age of 11 will have figured it out. The older kids in school will have helped the younger ones install them on their phones, probably charged them a fiver of pocket money to do it too.

Yes, but not everyone is a tech bro wanker at that age.

Have you met any kids lately? It's all Fortnite and Roblox. They've literally been raised by the iPhone and iPad. PB is so far behind the times on this its laughable. It's also interesting that the supporters of the government are making these weak arguments in favour of the OSA and the ignorance about tech literacy among kids is about the same level as the government. I guess you're one of those people that believes deleting emails will save water.

If it is so easy to evade and everyone is evading it via VPN, then why are you so vexed by it.

I reckon it is a significant barrier to many, not least accidental surfers and those of a young age. A six year old googling "bum" will now get to age verification rather than hard core porn. That to me is a win.

Yes, that's more the point, I think. Obviously any teenage lad with a bit of technical nous will likely be able to circumvent the checks, but it will at least help to prevent very young kids from accidentally stumbling across adult material.

I'll ask you the same question, why are young kids being given unsupervised access to internet connected devices? What of parental responsibility?

As a parent who has brought up a child single handed, I'd say it is virtually impossible to supervise a child's internet access at all times. Of course parents need to be responsible, but they need society to play along too.

https://www.ft.com/content/618f07cb-3cd8-42ff-af63-29118d305cbe

UK porn site traffic plunges as age verification rules take effect

Pornhub loses more than 1mn visitors in two weeks after Online Safety Act comes into force

Big win for the OSA. We should see a boost to productivity.

More like big boost for VPN companies, who are all foreign owned. Great for the economies of a number of Eastern European countries.

VPN yada yada. Fact is, there'll be fewer men and boys watching porn because some friction has been introduced into the access protocols. A good thing imo.

Not an easy thing to measure, but if I were to bet on the number of people accessing such sites iths month vs last month, I’d say that the number will be pretty much identical.

Making an activity harder to do leads to fewer people doing it.

Why should viewing porn be an exception to this?

It’s the online equivalent of the Chancellor putting 10p on a pack of cigarettes in the Budget.

If you want that (imperfect) comparison it's like a price hike AND having to produce an "I'm a drug addict" card to complete the purchase.

Anyway, we'll see who's right. There will be a consensus on the matter fairly soon.

We know that VPN's became the most downloaded app in the UK, google searches for VPN's went through the roof and so on. Maybe that's all just so we can read the news that's been redacted?

So what. VPN use rises and this mitigates the impact. Mitigates is not the same as eliminates.

What makes you think all porn users are doing this?

Having been 15 during the age of the internet. Using a VPN is trivially easy. Every male over the age of 11 will have figured it out. The older kids in school will have helped the younger ones install them on their phones, probably charged them a fiver of pocket money to do it too.

Yes, but not everyone is a tech bro wanker at that age.

Have you met any kids lately? It's all Fortnite and Roblox. They've literally been raised by the iPhone and iPad. PB is so far behind the times on this its laughable. It's also interesting that the supporters of the government are making these weak arguments in favour of the OSA and the ignorance about tech literacy among kids is about the same level as the government. I guess you're one of those people that believes deleting emails will save water.

If it is so easy to evade and everyone is evading it via VPN, then why are you so vexed by it.

I reckon it is a significant barrier to many, not least accidental surfers and those of a young age. A six year old googling "bum" will now get to age verification rather than hard core porn. That to me is a win.

Yes, that's more the point, I think. Obviously any teenage lad with a bit of technical nous will likely be able to circumvent the checks, but it will at least help to prevent very young kids from accidentally stumbling across adult material.

I'll ask you the same question, why are young kids being given unsupervised access to internet connected devices? What of parental responsibility?

Because, sadly, not all parents are as responsible as they should be.

It's the same as the argument against free school meals, or for the benefit cap. In each case, if all parents were fully responsible, loving people, there wouldn't be a need for the state to intervene. Until we reach that blessed situation, there is.

The Tory media team really do need to be sacked. Its been *brutal* all week on X. They put out post after post attacking Labour for things and practically every response calls out that they did the same / they did nothing about it / they had 14 years.

Best one? Attacking a Labour minister for (rightly) saying the weather affects small boat crossings, with someone posting the headline where PM Sunak did the exact same thing.

Sorry @hyufd this isn't working...

To be fair to the Conservatives, pretty much anything posted on X is going to get a load of replies saying how awful they are. Because there are enough people on X with that attitude, and the cost of a snarky reply is minimal.

Any public forum without a very strong editorial hand tends to be overrun by loud nutters, and I don't think anyone has ever solved that problem, ever.

Ferrari F1 team made that mistake yesterday, they posted a photo of a couple of “celebs” enjoying their hospitality, with the caption “Who should we get in the garage next?”

https://x.com/scuderiaferrari/status/1955245382189137996

The responses should have been predictable.

“Adrian Newey”
“A new team of strategy engineers”
“Someone who knows what he’s talking about to speak to Lewis”