Children’s exposure to porn higher than before 2023 Online Safety Act, poll finds | Pornography

Exposure to pornography has increased online since the introduction of rules in Great Britain to protect the public, whereby children from the age of six have accidentally seen the research of the children's commissioner for England.

Dame Rachel de Souza said a survey showed that more young people provide information that pornography was exposed to the age of 18 than in 2023 when the online security law became the law.

More than a quarter (27%) now stated that they had seen porn online at 11 a.m., with some said they were “six or younger” when they were asked about their first exposure.

The results of a similar survey that the children's commissioner carried out in 2023 and de Souza said they showed that despite the new law and promise of ministers and technology companies, they had improved little.

She said: “Violent pornography is easily accessible to children, the exposure is often random and often over the most common social media sites and has a profound way of behavior and beliefs of children.

“This report must be a line in the sand. New protective measures introduced in July by OfcomPart of the online security law offer a real opportunity to make the security of children online into a non-negotiable priority for everyone: political decision-makers, large tech giants and smaller tech developers. “

The results come from a nationally representative survey of 1,010 children and young people between the ages of 16 and 21, which were carried out in May shortly before the introduction of OFCOM in July.

The rules introduced by OFCOM have introduced significant changes to make it more difficult for the under 18-year-olds to access porn website. Use the same methodology and questions as the 2023 survey to ensure consistency, and found:

• Other young people said they had seen porn before the age of 18 in 2025 (70%) compared to 2023 (64%).

• More than a quarter (27%) stated to see porn online at 11. The average age that a child sees first remained pornography 13.

• Other endangered children had previously seen pornography. Children Anyone who received free school meals, those with a social worker, those with special educational needs and people with disabilities – both physically and mentally – were more online porn at 11 than their colleagues.

• Almost half of the respondents (44%) agreed with the explanation that “girls can say no first, but can then be persuaded to have sex”. Another analysis showed that 54% of girls and 41% of boys who had seen porn online with the explanation, compared to 46% of girls and 30% of boys who had not seen any porn – which indicates a connection between porn exposure and settings.

• More respondents said they had seen pornography online from accident (59%) when they were deliberately sought (35%). The proportion of children who accidentally saw porn was 21 points higher than in 2023 (59% V 38%).

• Networking and social media website made up 80% of the main sources with which children access porn. X was the most common source of pornography for children and overstriped porn sites.

• The gap between the number of children, see pornography on X, and those who look at them on dedicated porn has expanded (45% V 35% in 2025, compared to 41% V 37% in 2023).

• Most of the respondents had seen representations of actions that are illegal according to existing pornography laws or become illegal by the crime and the police laws.

• More than half (58%) had portrayed porn with a strangulation, 44% stated that they had specified in bed, and 36% had seen someone who did not agree to a sex act or refused before they turned 18.

• Another analysis resulted in a small number of children who were looking for violent or extreme content, which means that they were assigned to children, not that they were actively looking for the expression.

The report is concerned that children can handle restrictions by downloading a virtual private network (VPN), which is still legal software by downloading a virtual private network (VPN).

The report recommends that online pornography should meet the same requirements such as offline pornography. that the representation of a non -fatal strangulation should be prohibited; And that the Ministry of Education should offer schools to implement the new curricula for relationships, health and sex education.

Last week it turned out that the number of people in Great Britain visited the most popular pornography. heavily removed since extended age review rules came into force. The data analytics company similarly said that the leading Pornhub location for adults had lost more than 1 million visitors in just two weeks.

Pornhub and other important websites for adults introduced advanced age reviews on July 25 after the online security law has to make the websites for the U18 more difficult to see explicit material.

In similar web compared the daily average user numbers of popular pornography websites from 1 to 9 August with the daily average figures for July. Pornhub is the most visited website Great Britain for adult content and recorded a decline in traffic between July 24, one day before the information from similar web.

A government spokesman said: “Children have been growing up in a lawless online world for too long and bombarded with pornography and harmful content that they can scars for life. The online security law changes this.

“Let us be clear: VPNs are legal instruments for adults, and there are no plans to prohibit them. However, if platforms deliberately pass on the problems like VPNs to children, they will be confronted with hard enforcement and difficult fines. We will not allow company interests to come with child safety. protect.