UK web traffic for porn higher than for all social networks combined
The United Kingdom is currently in the process of introducing an ‘opt-in’ requirement for any web user wishing to view adult content. Within the next eighteen months, Prime Minister David Cameron has requested that all internet service providers (ISPs) block access to adult material by default, requiring that any user trying to access such content must tell their ISP that they wish to do so. For now, ISP compliance is voluntary, but Prime Minister Cameron has indicated that he will consider introducing legislation to force those that don’t comply.
Unsurprisingly, this has caused a bit of a fuss in the UK, with many decrying the puritanical approach as overkill, calling on parents to take greater responsibility for what their children are accessing online. Plenty of Brits love their porn, it seems, and there’s data to prove it.
By tracking clicks online during June 2013, internet analytics company SimilarWeb learned that watching porn is a British favourite when it comes to spending time online. Indeed, with 8.5% of traffic made up of visits to view adult content, it’s even more popular than social networking – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, and all the other networks combined, which only made up 7.3% of online activity in the UK.
