[HN Gopher] Porn site traffic plummets as UK age verification ru...
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       Porn site traffic plummets as UK age verification rules enforced
        
       Author : rdrd
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2025-08-13 19:35 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
        
       | anthk wrote:
       | This is useless as the Brit will just use VPN's/Tor or anything
       | else connected to US servers where the main language interface
       | will be 100% the same. This will just give free money to US
       | services and probably generate a big hole in the UK economy. I
       | remind you all that porn does far more money than tons of
       | services. They were pioneers on online commerce with credit
       | cards.
       | 
       | People can tell otherwise, but these services are widely used by
       | the population in disguise, from both women and men.
        
       | OgsyedIE wrote:
       | The historical data is that porn usage is inversely correlated
       | with sexual violence: the countries with more access to porn have
       | less rapes.
       | 
       | https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-sex/201601...
       | 
       | If I had to guess at a reason, it is presumably because cohorts
       | of socially undeveloped adult men are sexually sedated by porn
       | and are less motivated to rape.
        
         | heavensteeth wrote:
         | I'm not a psychologist but some of these extrapolations seem
         | _insane_ to me.
         | 
         | > Using Czech police records, American and Czech researchers
         | compared rape rates in the Czech Republic for the 17 years
         | before porn was legalized with rates during the 18 years after.
         | Rapes decreased from 800 a year to 500. More porn, less rape.
         | 
         | > In addition, the legalization of porn was associated with a
         | decrease in another despicable sex crime, child sexual abuse.
         | Under Communism, arrests for child sex abuse averaged 2,000 a
         | year. After porn became legal, the figure dropped by more than
         | half to fewer than 1,000. More porn, fewer sex crimes.
         | 
         | The country's entire foundation shifted from underneath it; an
         | empire collapsed around it. How could they possibly isolate the
         | legalisation of pornography _specifically_ as the cause of
         | decreased rape? Why not the legalisation of private enterprise?
         | Is it not feasible that living in a repressive, controlled,
         | surveilled society caused men unrest?
         | 
         | Perhaps the studies cited went into more detail, but "Lots of
         | rape in 1985, less rape in 2005. Porn was legalised between
         | then, ergo porn caused this." does NOT convince me.
        
           | cluckindan wrote:
           | It seems more likely that sexual offenses were used as an
           | excuse to arrest and defame political opposition and
           | activists.
        
           | derbOac wrote:
           | Fair enough although that's not the only statistics they
           | cite.
           | 
           | More importantly I think they're trying to point out the
           | converse of maybe what you're pointing to, which is that as
           | porn availability increases, if it caused sexual assault,
           | rates of the latter would go up. But it doesn't, you see the
           | opposite trend time and time again.
           | 
           | This is one of those cases where you'll never be able to do a
           | RCT, so any study will be flawed in some way (even RCTs have
           | their issues).
        
         | catigula wrote:
         | Major correlation/causation overreach here.
         | 
         | Also, if 'sexual sedation' were a premise you'd propose as
         | having some societal-level impact you'd start very quickly
         | getting into other effects, many of which might not be
         | desirable.
        
         | jongjong wrote:
         | Maybe it's for the best. I think new generations are way too
         | passive. We've been trained to live our lives passively and
         | vicariously... Engaging in the cheapest possible alternatives
         | to various life experiences, quantity over quality.
        
           | pk-protect-ai wrote:
           | Do you suggest that there are not enough sexual assaults with
           | this statement?
        
             | jongjong wrote:
             | No but more aggression and assertiveness is needed. I hope
             | this won't correlate but I really think our generation will
             | end up in a place worse than we can imagine if we don't
             | grow a backbone. Already millennials are being coerced into
             | various kinds of sexual slavery.
        
             | dkiebd wrote:
             | That's a very glib interpretation of the message, bordering
             | on the malicious.
        
       | nurettin wrote:
       | Meanwhile, hetzner/digitalocean traffic increases ten fold.
        
       | derr1 wrote:
       | Just means more VPNs are being used to bypass this stupid piece
       | of legislation.
        
         | netsharc wrote:
         | It's interesting that simple Javascript can be used by e.g
         | PornHub to predict VPN usage by Brits: "What is the browser's
         | timezone, and what is it's language?"
         | 
         | If the connection is coming from New York, but the browser says
         | it's UTC+1 and en_GB...
        
       | pk-protect-ai wrote:
       | What are they going to do with this amount of freed hands now????
        
       | Denatonium wrote:
       | In other news, a massive spike in BitTorrent traffic has been
       | detected in the UK. Experts are calling the rise "unprecedented".
        
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       (page generated 2025-08-13 23:02 UTC)