Approximately 20 percent – or one-fifth of the 13.8 million people who watch adult content online in the United Kingdom – do so during work hours (between 9am and 5:30pm), spending an average of 55 minutes on adult sites. A report by communications regulator Ofcom indicates that men account for 73 percent of these daytime viewers. Most users visit adult sites during work hours, with the pre-dawn window of midnight to 8:59am coming in second-most popular followed by the least sought-after slot of 5:30pm to 7:59pm.
The expanded audience led to increased traffic for several leading adult content sites in 2023. The most-visited site, Pornhub – which has long been accused of sex trafficking – recorded 18 percent of all adults gaining access in May, with total UK visitors ranking second only to the United States. Five of the top 10 sites reported an audience growth of at least 10 percent, the most significant being OnlyFans with a 20 percent increase.
Gender discrepancy in adult content preferences was also highlighted by the report, with men three times more likely to consume porn than women. Curiously, younger men predominantly accessed Hentai – a sub-genre of sexually explicit oriental cartoons.
