Nearly half of porn users in the UK have admitted to watching content on sites that evade age verification checks, leaving them vulnerable to viewing illegal material.
Since the implementation of the Online Safety Act, users are now required to provide government-issued IDs to verify their age.
This rule spans across various websites, including X, Instagram, Snapchat, and Reddit.
While users might not think twice about handing over their IDs to these platforms, they might feel differently when it comes to verifying their age for pornography sites.
New research from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, an organization that protects children from abuse, has found that people are avoiding inputting their data by accessing sites that don’t feature these mandatory age checks.
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Roughly 45 percent of UK adults surveyed said they have accessed sites that don’t require them to verify their age.
The survey, which included more than 3,700 Brits and nearly 1,500 pornography users, revealed that users who have visited these sites ended up watching fringe content.
Nearly four in ten people said that watching this content made them feel uncomfortable, and 40 percent of people said that what they had seen had forced them off the websites for good.
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which commissioned the survey, argues that visiting sites without proper age checks could leave users vulnerable to watching content that is illegal and may contain child abuse.
Advocates believe that age verification checks are a vital component when protecting children from harmful content.
However, “some adults are choosing riskier sites to avoid age checks,” Dr. Alexandra Bailey, Head of Psychology at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, said.
The danger here is that these sites may expose users to illegal content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
“Even if you’re not looking for it, you could encounter it – and that can have serious life-changing consequences,” Dr. Bailey warns.
Viewing CSAM could not only have dire legal consequences, but it could also ignite a desire to look at more child abuse material.
Many people who view CSAM first encountered the illegal content accidentally, research provided by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation shows.
Accessing CSAM could also have more dangerous consequences, as those who view this type of content, much like regular pornography, may seek out more extreme content to satisfy them.
Viewing CSAM could potentially escalate from watching child pornography to touching and abusing a child, as discussed in JCS’s video on Canadian pedophile and murderer Michael Rafferty.
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