UK online safety law leads to 5m extra age checks a day for pornography sites

Huge increase in online age verifications but many users turn to virtual private networks to access pornography sites

Five million extra online age checks a day are being carried out in the UK since the introduction of age-gating for pornography sites, according to new data.

The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) said there had been a sharp increase in additional age checks in the UK since Friday, when age verification became mandatory for accessing pornography under the Online Safety Act.