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There’s a strange moment that happens when you quit porn: suddenly sex feels… quieter. That’s what happened to Ray*, who stopped watching in July after age verification rules kicked in. At first, sex felt more vanilla. “I have been a little less creative in bed as I’m not trying anything I’ve recently seen [online] with my girlfriend,” he admitted. But it also felt more grounded. “It does feel healthier […] and it’s made ‘normal’ sex a little more exciting.”
If you somehow missed the memo, the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) began enforcing age checks on 18+ sites starting July 25. Imagine a bouncer suddenly stationed at the entrance of every porn site in the country—minus the velvet rope and questionable cologne. The idea was to keep minors from stumbling into explicit content. But for adults like Ray, who relied on free tube sites, the price of entry became handing over personal identification. “It’s reduced my porn usage by 99%,” said the 36-year-old workplace trainer. Others haven’t quit—they’ve just changed how they watch… and in some cases, doubled down.
This shift among adults isn’t the stated goal. The law was designed to protect children, especially given that 79% of young people in the UK say they’ve encountered violent porn before turning 18. With 80% public support, legislators believed ID checks were the best way to stop minors from accessing explicit material.
But critics worry the law is a gateway to broader online censorship. Sex workers are already feeling the consequences—forced to sanitize profiles and content across platforms, making it harder to market themselves safely or honestly. And while everyone keeps shouting about protecting kids, almost no one is talking about actual sex education or porn literacy, both of which are crucial for teens learning how to navigate desire and boundaries, and for adults struggling with compulsive habits.
Three months in, the OSA isn’t delivering on its most basic promise. “It will almost certainly reduce the most casual, accidental access to porn for under-18s, but if the question is whether it will stop young people altogether, the honest answer is no,” said Professor Clarissa Smith, co-editor of Porn Studies. “Teenagers are extraordinarily adept at routing around whatever adults prohibit, and they often end up in the less safe corners of the internet to do it.”
Over on Discord, teens have already discovered a workaround using screenshots of video game characters to bypass age checks. “It’s essential that we recognize that many young people will find ways to get around age-gating,” said Paula Hall, founder of The Laurel Centre, which focuses on sex and porn addiction. Government officials haven’t exactly been eager to discuss the results.
But like any prohibition, the law is changing behavior—especially among adults who, legally speaking, should be able to watch whatever consenting adults create. The age checks feel invasive to many. Who wants their kinks attached to a verified identity in a database that may or may not leak?
“Verification is wrong to me,” Ray said. “It’s like telling the fire brigade you’re about to burn your house down. It’s an inconvenience to everyone.” He doesn’t trust verification vendors. “I don’t believe the data is deleted, I don’t believe they are secure, and I don’t trust the location of these services either.”
David*, a film-industry craftsman, felt the same way. “There was no chance of me entering my personal details onto a porn site — and equally, getting a VPN for the purposes of watching porn seemed a bit desperate, so it was quite easy for me to disengage entirely.”
For others, it’s less about paranoia and more about effort. “It’s instant gratification, so I wouldn’t put that kind of effort in,” said Luke*, who works in patient enrollment. “I would never scan my face or hand over my ID. I’m not that concerned about personal security, it’s just [that age verification] is an effort and not worth it for the end result.”
PORN AGE VERIFICATION IS LIKE TELLING THE FIRE BRIGADE YOU’RE ABOUT TO BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN
In that sense, the OSA is functioning like a convenience tax on horny impulses. Think of it like the plain-packaging laws for cigarettes—just instead of dull tobacco branding, it’s dulling access to bukkake. “For many, the additional time and effort it takes helps to reduce impulsive viewing and may encourage developing wider interests,” Hall noted.
“For some men, having to verify their age adds just enough friction [making an undesirable action more difficult to perform] that they delay or skip a viewing session,” added Smith. “It doesn’t mean they had a compulsive relationship with porn, just that spontaneity is sensitive to obstacles. Friction always changes behavior at the margins.”
Of course, whether porn counts as an addiction is another battle entirely. Hall believes “the language of addiction fits the lived experience.” Others argue it’s closer to a compulsive habit fueled by shame, not dopamine. But either way, a lot of people want to cut back: 80% of regular porn-watching men aged 18–29 in the UK say they’re concerned about their consumption.
For some, the OSA became the unexpected catalyst they needed. “I’ve found a renewed focus on having real fun (not just in the bedroom) and my relationships more generally seem to have blossomed,” said David. Friends have noticed a shift in his mood—“calm positivity,” he called it. “It’s pretty much ended my casual consumption; it was too easy to fall down that rabbit hole during moments of boredom or stress.”
But most men aren’t quitting—they’re adapting. “The larger pattern is displacement […] the desire doesn’t disappear; it detours,” said Smith. “The OSA increases the distance between a moment of wanting and a moment of accessing, but people bridge that distance in creative ways. Men are simply reorganizing their porn habits around the new architectures.”
And in true internet fashion, Reddit’s response was to make jokes about “moving to Norway.” Translation: VPNs are doing numbers. Proton VPN saw an 1,800% spike in sign-ups right after verification launched.
This also explains why headlines celebrating a supposed 77% drop in UK Pornhub traffic miss the plot—traffic is just being rerouted through “other countries.” Coincidentally, 77% of Gen Z say they watch porn regularly. The math speaks for itself.
Some men are using the moment to pay creators directly. “I do have a kink, so I found reconnecting to adult performers who lean into that world much more rewarding,” Ray said. “I buy a clip a month now, and I like the fact that I’m now paying the entertainers for their work.”
Most, however, are not pulling out their credit cards. Free sites still dwarf paid platforms by a massive margin—hundreds of millions of UK visits vs. a fraction of that on subscription-based services.
Edward* chose a different path: erotic literature. “I’d say the largest behavioral shift would be that I am now more open to the concept of readable erotica,” he said. He’s using fantasy instead of autoplay algorithms. “I definitely have been trying to curate my inner sex life using my own fantasies rather than taking the easy option of porn.”
I’VE BEEN CURATING MY INNER SEX LIFE USING MY OWN FANTASIES RATHER THAN TAKING THE EASY OPTION OF PORN
Maybe retro porn will return—DVDs tucked on dusty shelves like vinyl revival for genitals. That’s what one shop owner predicted. But nostalgia rarely wins against pixels and convenience.
More realistically, people are heading to sketchier sites with no age checks and much worse moderation. Ofcom helpfully publishes a running list of these platforms, effectively handing adults a menu of unfiltered content. “The OSA is likely driving adults into a more fragmented, less regulated ecosystem, largely because people are uneasy about handing over ID for sexual content,” Smith said. “We’re probably not going to see less engagement with porn, we’ll see different routes to it — many of them far outside the spaces the law was written for.”
Ray tried it. “I ended up on some unfiltered Eastern European sites, but finding what I wanted was difficult and unfulfilling.”
For others, the shift is darker. “I watch more hardcore stuff on unregulated sites now,” said one anonymous user.
The ripple effects aren’t subtle. Young men already drifting toward misogynistic corners of the internet now have more reason to end up there. “I grew up in an era of porn playing cards being traded in school,” Edward said. “It was pretty tame stuff compared to the likes of choking, degradation and the weird step-sibling shite that makes up large portions of porn sites. This trend and attitudes towards women in general I do find seriously concerning.”
That doesn’t mean porn itself is inherently harmful. Like anything pleasurable, it’s about intention, context, and consent. Performed ethically, and consumed by choice—not compulsion—it can enhance sex lives rather than replace them.
For some men, the OSA nudged them toward healthier patterns. A smaller group discovered new, ethical models of consumption. But for the vast majority, those digital bouncers are just a minor obstacle. They’ll keep flashing IDs—real or borrowed—and spending another night on the tubes.
