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Since July, AVS has been mandatory for websites offering adult content in the United Kingdom. Was it worth the effort? The measure had already been heavily criticised in advance because, among other things, it was also directed against Reddit and Discord. Accordingly, a petition against the AVS requirement was launched (CASZIN reported). But it was all to no avail, and now the British regulatory authority ‘Ofcom’ is basking in its supposed success. At least according to its own statements, the major sites, such as Aylo, have seen significantly fewer visitors since then.

Success or apparent success?

This raises the question: was the aim really to verify the age of visitors securely – or simply to restrict access to the relevant pages for everyone, thereby patronising adults? It is certain that the stated one-third of visitors (the alleged reduction in traffic since the introduction of the coercive measure) were not minors. Another scenario seems much more likely: search engines can be used to find sites within seconds, even from the UK, that continue to offer hardcore content without any controls. Users simply switch to other sites – and in doing so, they are bound to come across content that they would not find on Aylo’s sites, which are regulated according to certain criteria. In addition, VPN services – some of which are available completely free of charge – are also extremely popular in the UK. Those who use these tools have free access without AVS, conceal their actual location and automatically increase their privacy protection. What is really astonishing about the figures provided by Ofcom is that around two-thirds of the millions and millions of visitors to Pornhub & Co. have revealed their identity, uploaded photos of their ID cards or had their faces scanned in order to access the sites. This seems very high indeed – combined with the concerns about providing highly personal information in order to access porn. If we add those who use one of the measures described above to circumvent the restrictions, a completely different scenario would also be conceivable: Did the harsh measures and the associated widespread media coverage – combined with the ‘appeal of the forbidden’ – make erotic websites in the UK even more prominent and desirable, and thus more visited in real terms than before? It would not be the first time that actual or alleged protectors of young people have achieved exactly the opposite of what they claim to be aiming for.

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