UK second most porn obsessed nation

The United Kingdom has the second highest incidence of internet pornography searches in the world, alarming new data shows.

Figures highlighted by The Sun newspaper show that an average of 16,600,000 searches for porn took place in the UK each month in 2021.

The only country that exceeded this number was the United States, with around 68,000,000 monthly searches. The US population is 40 times larger than the UK's.

Canada comes third in the list, followed by the Philippines, Germany, Australia, France and Italy. The data also demonstrates a huge rise in searches during the pandemic.

The number of people, of all ages, searching for porn in the UK last year rose was 22.1 per cent higher than in 2020. It is thought being stuck at home led to an increase in searches.

In March, polling by Ofcom revealed that children being exposed to pornography is a major concern among Brits.

A research project by the regulator examined what people in the UK consider to be "potential online harms".

The potential harms cited most regularly by adults included bullying, abusive behaviour and threats (cited by 5 in 10 adults), sexual or pornographic content (4 in 10) and violent or disturbing content (4 in 10).

Children also cited these concerns with five in ten 12-15-year-olds mentioning bullying, abuse and threats, 3 in 10 mentioning sexual or pornographic content, and 3 in 10 mentioning violent or distubing content.

CARE has campaigned for stronger curbs on online porn for many years and has welcomed a move to stop kids accessing porn sites under the government's plans.

When the new law comes into force, all commercial porn sites will be required to verify the age of users through age verification or face huge fines.