Visits to adult websites in the United Kingdom have dropped sharply since the government introduced stricter age verification requirements this summer, according to new data released by the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom.

Aylo, the company behind Pornhub, reports that traffic to the site has fallen by more than 77 percent since the rules came into force in late July under the Online Safety Act. The decline marks one of the steepest drops in viewership ever recorded for the platform in a major market.

The law requires pornography websites to verify the age of all UK visitors to prevent minors from accessing explicit material. Pornhub, the country’s most-visited adult site, now uses text message and email verification systems to confirm users are over 18.

An Aylo spokesperson said the company was “honestly shocked” by the extent of the decline, noting that while VPN usage briefly doubled after the new rules took effect, overall traffic did not recover.

“We’ve lost the traffic, but these are not people that have stopped looking at porn overnight,” the spokesperson said. “They’re just going to other websites — many of which are unverified, unsafe, and unmoderated.”

Ofcom confirmed that the ten most-visited adult websites in the UK, representing roughly a quarter of all pornographic web traffic, have implemented age verification checks. The regulator has launched investigations into 62 websites and apps suspected of failing to comply.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said the new rules were designed to “make children more safe online, not less.”

“Until now, children could easily stumble across porn without searching for it,” said Brittany Taylor-Kirk, Ofcom’s media relations manager. “Our new rules end the era of an age-blind internet. Sites must now implement robust checks to protect children from porn and other harmful content.”

However, Aylo has criticized Ofcom’s enforcement approach, claiming it has disproportionately affected compliant platforms while leaving non-compliant sites untouched. “There are hundreds of thousands of adult sites accessible worldwide,” the company said in a statement, “and Ofcom has so far sent letters to fewer than 0.1 percent of them.”

Independent analytics firm Similarweb reported a 47 percent drop in Pornhub’s UK traffic in the first two weeks after the rules took effect, and a comparable decline for rival site XVideos. Other data show that visits to OnlyFans fell by about 10 percent over the same period.

The surge in downloads of VPN apps in the UK, which allow users to disguise their location and bypass restrictions, suggests that many viewers are seeking alternative access rather than abandoning adult content altogether.

Legal experts and digital rights advocates have warned that the new rules could have unintended consequences. First Amendment attorney Lawrence Walters told AVN that requiring users to provide identity data “burdens access to lawful adult speech” and risks pushing audiences toward riskier, unregulated corners of the internet.

The UK’s Online Safety Act, first introduced in 2023, is among the world’s most sweeping efforts to regulate access to adult material online. The law is now being watched closely by other governments, including Australia, which plans to implement similar measures by 2027.

As Aylo’s spokesperson put it: “The irony is that the sites taking child safety most seriously are the ones being punished for it.”