Your Daily Sex!

Deadline 5 September

The Justice Committee of the Scottish Assembly has called for views on a proposal to introduce the Nordic system into Scotland. That system criminalises purchasers of sexual services.

The system was tried in Northern Ireland, and failed to reduce demand. It also increased levels of violence and abuse : See https://nationalsurvivornetwork.org/document/a-review-of-the-criminalisation-of-paying-for-sexual-services-in-northern-ireland/

Human rights organisations, charities, experts and others, have been trying to oppose the Nordic system, but need your help. (A starter list of 150 is here: https://decrimnow.org.uk/open-letter-on-the-nordic-model/ )

Scots also overwhelmingly reject the proposal to criminalise the purchase of sex. Only a small minority of 14% support new laws in this area: https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-out-step-scots-overwhelmingly-32917246

However, it will certainly be pushed through unless it is opposed.

You can disagree with this draconian proposal, to help stop it becoming law, by entering Strongly oppose the creation of a new offence, or something similar, in response to Question 1 of the Committees consultation here : https://yourviews.parliament.scot/justice/prostitution-offences-support-bill/

The deadline is 5 September 2025. Responses can be made anonymously if desired and responding to the call for views, takes just a couple of minutes. (There are four other questions, around repealing the soliciting offence, quashing convictions around it, financial and other support, and other comments, which can be answered, according to the readers view, or may be left blank.)

However, note that most of the UK population believe both purchase and sale of sex should be legal : https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/48773-what-does-britain-think-of-sex-work-and-sex-workers

Please respond to the consultation even if you are not in Scotland, because, if adopted in Scotland the Nordic system will soon be forced on England and Wales too.  

Newspaper reports are suggesting that visits to the three main porn websites, all now inflicting ID verification, have significantly declined. The reports have only published a few partially defined example stats from an analytics company called SimilarWeb that don't readily stack up with themselves.

Papers report that

• the most popular, Pornhub dropped from an estimated 3.8m on July 24 to 2.0m for an average day in August, a drop of 47%. The Daily Mail adds that this figure has dropped to 1.8m by 18th August.
• the second most popular,  XVideos dropped by a similar 47%
• the third most popular, xHamster dropped from an estimated 2.0m on July 24 to 1.2m for an average day in August, a drop of 39%.

That would seem to be an average drop of about 45%.

There are now three straightforward options for porn viewers to continue their entertainment ie

• Stupidly submit to the ID verification
• Simply move to the many smaller websites that haven't implemented ID verification, see list of adult websites and their ID verification status
• Use a VPN to continue to browse any porn site of your choice.

So it would seem a fair assumption that no porn viewers need be deprived of their adult entertainment and that they would probably continue very much as before.

It would therefore be reasonable to assume that 55% of porn viewers have submitted to ID verification whilst 45% have moved to non restricted websites or are using a VPN.

Surely Ofcom, the Government and the parasitic age verification companies will all be well pleased that so many people have opted for ID verification.

The SimilarWeb analytics do indeed suggest that there has been a significant upsurge for the non ID verifying smaller websites. The Daily Mail comments that the traffic to non-complying PornHat.com increased by 130% in the same time frame. Pornhub commented:

As we've seen in many jurisdictions around the world, there is often a drop in traffic for compliant sites and an increase in traffic for non-compliant sites.

The traffic stats also suggest that there has been no significant decline in visitors to X and Reddit that have introduced ID verification, but only for their adult sections. The majority of their websites are unrestricted  to all for the large majority of their content.

Reporter Ash Parrish writes on the Verge website:

In the aftermath of itch.io pulling the sale of over 20,000 pages of adult content , the creators of that work are left feeling betrayed, exhausted, and fearful. The number of platforms that permit the sale of adult material is shrinking, and theres no guarantee the ones that remain will still permit it in the future.

To some creators, the most disheartening thing about itch.io removing thousands of pages of adult content is that its relatively unsurprising. The storefront is one of several in recent years that have embraced adult content only to shun it later when payment processors start asking questions. They've now found themselves booted from platform to platform, moving from Tumblr to Patreon to Gumroad, only to have the rug pulled out from under them each time.

But now, with their livelihoods at stake, many creators and their communities have begun to push back and search for new ways to thrive.

PixelJail, a creator who makes BDSM and other kink-related comics and illustration, has now opted to set up their own websites. But even without the burden of conforming to a platforms rules, having ones own website isnt a guarantee of absolute safety. In the UK, where PixelJail lives, the recently implemented Online Safety Act requires that online platforms have strong age checks in place to prevent children from accessing pornographic or harmful content.

When adult creators are regularly forced to find new places for their work, their business overall suffers. I can never get ahead, said PixelJail, a creator who makes BDSM and other kink-related comics and illustrations. I have to stop doing paid work to set up new accounts, backlog posting, pay for new subscriptions or services and other administrative tasks. I had to geoblock my websites in the UK, including my webstore, PixelJail said, meaning they no longer sell their work in their own country

See the full article from theverge.com