At a time when more and more countries want to regulate pornographic sites, those belonging to the company headed in Montreal MindGeek are recording a drop in their traffic each month. Visits to Pornhub, YouPorn and Pornhub Premium have plummeted 33% in one year, according to data compiled by The duty.
The regulatory noose is tightening on a few MindGeek sites. France and Germany could soon ban some of its platforms, while Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom are studying bills to reduce the accessibility of sites that distribute pornographic content.
This tightening comes on top of the lawsuits that have escalated in the past year. The result: footfall on the company’s platforms has dropped considerably in a year, according to data published by the British firm Similarweb obtained by The duty.
In less than a year, Pornhub monthly visits have fallen from 3.2 billion visits to 2.1 billion, a drop of 34%. Comparable situation for YouPorn, whose visits plummeted by 35%, from 274 million to 176 million.
The marked drop in traffic to MindGeek’s free sites – the main entry points for its paid site Pornhub Premium – has had an effect on the latter. During the same period, the number of visits fell 22%, from almost 127 million visits to less than 90 million.
Protect children
With a few exceptions, declines were recorded in all markets. But it is in Europe that they have been most marked, particularly in Germany, where the number of visits has plummeted by more than 12% in the last month alone.
The country has adopted new child protection laws, which will have the effect of blocking platforms that distribute pornographic content that do not respect them. Pornhub and YouPorn are targeted by German authorities.
And Germany is not alone in wanting to tighten the screws on pornographic sites. The French audiovisual sector regulator on Monday ordered five popular pornographic sites, including Pornhub, to prevent their access to minors. In the event of non-compliance, the sites could be blocked within 15 days.
“I was very happy and satisfied that France was taking action,” said independent senator Julie Miville-Dechêne. It is not easy to be the first to want to supervise a sector. This one also proposed at the end of November a new version of its bill died on the order paper because of the federal elections.
The objective of this new version remains the same: to protect children against exposure to pornography by forcing pornographic sites to set up a system to verify the age of their users.
A duty of care
Other countries want to regulate access to these sites, she recalls. In the UK, a parliamentary committee has completed the preliminary study of the draft Online Safety Bill. This new legislative framework will impose a duty of care on pornographic platforms, requiring them to verify the age of users to ensure that children do not have access to harmful content.
I was very happy and satisfied that France was taking action. It is not easy to be the first to want to supervise a sector.
Last June, the Australian Parliament adopted the Online Safety Act 2021. Pornographic sites could again be forced to set up systems to verify the age of their users. An action plan should be made public within a year.
MindGeek did not respond to our request for comment.