Overview

• A Washington Post analysis of the 90 most-visited porn sites found the 14 without age checks saw dramatic U.K. traffic gains—some doubling or tripling year over year—while compliant sites lost visits.
• After minister Peter Kyle warned against using VPNs to bypass checks, VPN apps surged to the top of U.K. download charts.
• Ofcom is investigating four companies that operate 34 pornography sites to determine whether their age checks are “highly effective.”
• Age verification using IDs or facial scans routes sensitive data to third-party vendors such as Yoti and Incode, creating privacy risks and ongoing costs that are especially burdensome for smaller platforms.
• Similar measures are expanding in the United States, with 25 states passing age-verification laws and services like Bluesky choosing to block Mississippi users rather than implement new checks.