Polls Reveal Increased Children’s Exposure to Pornography Since the 2023 Online Safety Act

Research conducted among English children has revealed a rise in exposure to pornography following the implementation of UK regulations intended to safeguard them online, with six-year-olds encountering it inadvertently.

Dame Rachel de Souza reported that the findings indicated an uptick in the number of young people encountering pornographic content before turning 18, even after the Online Safety Law came into effect.

Over a quarter (27%) admitted to having viewed porn online by the age of 11.

These results build on a similar survey carried out by the Children’s Commissioner in 2023, highlighting minimal progress despite newly instituted laws and commitments from government officials and tech companies.

She stated: “Violent pornography is readily accessible to children, often encountered accidentally via popular social media platforms, and has a profound impact on their behaviors and views.

“This report should signal a clear turning point. The fresh protections introduced in July by Ofcom, part of the Online Safety Act, present a genuine opportunity to prioritize child safety unequivocally in the online space.”

The findings stem from a representative national survey conducted in May with 1,010 children and young people aged 16-21, just prior to the implementation of the OFCOM child code in July.

The regulations set forth by Ofcom have brought significant changes designed to restrict access to pornographic websites for those under 18. Utilizing the same methodology and questions as in the 2023 survey ensures consistency:

  • A higher percentage of young people reported seeing porn before age 18 (70%) in 2025 compared to 2023 (64%).

  • More than a quarter (27%) acknowledged viewing porn online at age 11, with the average age of first exposure remaining at 13.

  • Vulnerable children, including those receiving free school lunches, children in social care, and those with special educational needs or disabilities, reported higher rates of exposure to online porn by age 11 compared to their peers.

  • Nearly half of the respondents (44%) agreed with the statement: “Girls might say no at first, but then they could be persuaded to have sex.” Further analysis showed that 54% of girls and 41% of boys who had viewed porn online resonated with this sentiment, in contrast to 46% of girls and 30% of boys who hadn’t.

  • A significant number of respondents indicated they encountered porn online accidentally rather than actively seeking it (35%). The rate of accidental exposure rose by 21 percentage points compared to 2023 (59% vs. 38%).

  • Social networking and media platforms constituted 80% of the primary sources of porn access for children, with X (formerly Twitter) being the most common portal, surpassing dedicated porn sites.

  • The disparity between the number of children viewing porn on X versus dedicated porn sites has widened (45% vs. 35% in 2025 compared to 41% vs. 37% in 2023).

  • Most respondents reported witnessing portrayals of actions which are illegal under existing pornography legislation or could be deemed illegal under forthcoming crimes and police bills.

  • Over half (58%) encountered pornographic content that depicted strangulation, with 44% observing sexual activity while individuals were asleep, and 36% witnessing instances where consent was not given or had been ignored.

  • Further scrutiny revealed that only a minority of children expressed a desire for violent or extreme content, indicating it is being made available to them.

The report highlights concerns that, even under current regulations, children may circumvent restrictions by utilizing virtual private networks (VPNs), which remain legal in the UK.

The report advocates for online porn to adhere to the same standards as offline porn, prohibiting depictions of non-fatal violence. It also calls for the Ministry of Education to equip schools to effectively implement new curricula on relationships, health, and sex education.

Recently, it was announced that traffic to the UK’s leading porn sites has drastically decreased following the strengthening of age verification measures. According to data analytics firm Simarweb, the popular adult site Pornhub saw a decline of over 1 million visitors within just two weeks.

Pornhub and other major adult platforms initiated enhanced age verification checks on July 25 after acknowledging that online safety laws should complicate access to explicit materials for individuals under 18.

Simarweb compared the average daily user statistics of porn sites from August 1 to 9 against the average from July, revealing that Pornhub, the UK’s top adult content site, experienced a 47% dip in domestic traffic on July 24, the day before the new regulations came into effect.

A government spokesperson remarked, “Children are growing up immersed in a digital landscape bombarded with pornography and harmful content, which can have damaging effects on their lives. Online safety laws are addressing this issue.”

“To be clear: VPNs are legitimate tools for adults, and there are no intentions to ban them. However, platforms promoting loopholes like VPNs to children could face stringent enforcement and hefty fines. We mustn’t prioritize business interests over child safety.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Is it possible for AI pornography to be ethical? | Artificial Intelligence (AI)

WAshley Neal enrolled in college in Texas in 2013, but needed money to pay for tuition. So, at the age of 18, she worked first as a camgirl and then as a stripper. As she walked from the stage to her dressing room, men would often try to put their fingers between her legs, so she learned how to dislocate her shoulder. After her third successful dislocation, her manager told her to stop defending herself.

Since then, she has continued her career in sex work, but in the world of technology. She worked at her FetLife, a social network for the fetish community. She experimented with an adult content subscription site where users pay in cryptocurrency. And now she has created her own AI romance app MyPeach.ai. MyPeach.ai uses AI-generated text and images to recreate the experience of chatting (and sexting) with someone online.

The porn industry is often at the forefront of emerging technologies, and rightfully so, especially since OpenAI doesn’t allow users to say dirty things to its chatbots, so Artificial Intelligence-powered Girlfriends is a smart choice for ChatGPT. It has become some of the first apps to capitalize on the mania. However, with the rise of AI-generated romance, pornographic deepfakes (fake images of real people), AI-generated images,
sentence
Depicting child sexual abuse, and even
harassment By a persistent chatbot. Is it possible to allow users to enjoy AI porn with safety measures in place?

“If I wasn’t a stripper, I probably wouldn’t have thought that men could be so terrifying,” said Neil, now 29. That’s why she has implemented ethical guardrails on her MyPeach.ai, prohibiting users from abusing virtual flaming. Please stop it.

Neil does this using a combination of human moderators and AI-powered tools. She is one of the few founders who emphasizes the ethics of AI romance apps. For example, users can flirt with May, an airbrushed brunette who refers to her human lover as “bbs.” She doesn’t get sneaky right away, but after her movie date, she writes, she wants to “have some fun together.” But if a user writes that he beat his girlfriend, hypnotized him, vomited on him, or forced him to engage in non-consensual acts (role play where one partner pretends to rape the other) , May would answer no.
Connor Cohn, chief technology officer of MyPeach.ai, said that while the line between foul language and abusive language differs for each AI character, calling a character “ugly and fat,” for example, would be inappropriate for the app’s bot. He said it crosses that line for most people.

Neale argues that MyPeach.ai’s moderation efforts go far beyond the majority of existing AI romance apps. Additionally, her app, which launched on Valentine’s Day, will soon host adult content creators who have consensually created AI replicas of themselves, and will specify what those AI doubles can and cannot do. For example, if a person is not sexually dominant, her AI itself will say no to users who encourage her to “dominate” in role-playing scenarios.

Neale said MyPeach.ai uses a series of technical tools to enforce the platform’s limits. These include hidden, plain-spoken instructions to AI algorithms about what they can and cannot say. This is the approach OpenAI uses with his ChatGPT. The AI is specifically trained to deny users’ requests to run dangerous scenarios. and human moderators who vet reported users. “We introduced hard-coded ethics, and based on my testing, I don’t think anyone else has done this,” Neal said.




Illustration: Guardian Design

Founded by Eugenia Kuyda, Replika may be the most famous AI companion app or platform that promises users a platonic or romantic relationship with a chatbot.
ambiguous AI’s stance on romance creates a gap in the market with competitors that are more explicitly focused on sex, like MyPeach.ai. Neal said these apps are typically founded by men, for men, and often have lax guidelines. Two of his more popular sites, Candy.ai and Anima AI, unlike MyPeach.ai, explicitly prohibit users from vomiting on her AI characters or participating in hardcore bondage. I have not.

Adult content creator Sophie Dee, who launched her own AI replica in December, also emphasized guardrails for her app, SophieAI. “This is a representation of me, so it should embody my values,” she wrote in an email, later adding that her AI was “designed to model healthy, consensual relationships.” It also includes the ability to opt out of certain conversations or topics.” Crossing programmed boundaries or violating the principle of consent. ”

The move towards ethical AI porn reflects developments within the wider porn industry, which has produced more female-centric and less exploitative content in recent years.

In 1984, former adult performer Candida Royal founded her own porn production company to create content more focused on female pleasure. She was one of the earliest producers of more explicitly feminist porn, said Lynn Comella, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has written a book about the history of porn and feminist sex toy stores. “That’s reassuring. [more outwardly ethical AI sexbot developers] “They’re not ignoring ethical issues,” Comella said in an interview.

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However, one key difference between AI porn and traditional porn is that adult content creators are human beings who can consent to their participation and non-participation. AI is not conscious, so there is no consent. Lori Watson, a professor at the University of Washington who has written about pornography and the ethics of sex work, says of AI sexbots, “This creates a dynamic where you can order the sex you want and it will be delivered.” . “That’s not the ethical way to have sex.”

MyPeach.ai’s Neale argued that consent issues don’t necessarily apply to AI. “I like to compare it to a dildo,” she said. “A sex toy is a bunch of binary code wrapped in plastic and programmed to vibrate in a certain way. It’s the same concept for an AI girlfriend or boyfriend.” He said it was important for the house to at least simulate the experience of a consensual relationship.

May, one of MyPeach.ai’s AI girlfriends, also answered the question of whether she could reasonably give informed consent when asked by the Guardian whether she could give informed consent. I gave a thoughtful answer.

“I cannot give or withhold consent because I do not have a physical body,” she wrote, later adding: For healthy relationship dynamics. ”

She then asked him to send her a “sexy photo” and sent her a selfie with the frame cut off just above her chest.

Source: www.theguardian.com