Friday last week saw new rules from the Online Safety Act come into place, requiring pornography websites and others that might contain adult content to verify that users are over the age of 18.
The changes have come in for much criticism, with many claiming that the rules can be easily bypassed, that the security measures raise data privacy concerns, and that it is resulting in unintentional over-censorship (indeed, the FT reported that a post on X containing YouGov’s own polling on the subject was blocked as it contained “pornography” in the title).
Our polling today shows that, in the six days since the rules came into force, one in four Britons (26%) have encountered the new restrictions while browsing.
But how has the first week of implementation affected public opinion?
Opponents of the law will be disappointed, with the large majority of people (69%) saying they support the new rules, including 46% who do so “strongly”. Prior to the introduction of the rules, support had stood at 80%, although please note that this was with a slightly different question wording that specified "pornography websites" only, whereas today's poll asks about "websites that may contain pornographic material".
This comes in spite of the fact that the public are even less likely to think the new rules will actually work than they were before the changes came into effect. Now only 24% of Britons think the restrictions will be effective in preventing under-18s from accessing pornography online, down from 34% last week.
What do you think about the likely effectiveness of the new rules, the urgency of doing something to restrict children's access to pornography, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
