Children’s commissioner for England says findings show little had improved despite new law and tech firms’ promises

Exposure to pornography has increased since the introduction of UK rules to protect the public online, with children as young as six seeing it by accident, research by the children’s commissioner for England has found.

Dame Rachel de Souza said a survey found that more young people said they had been exposed to pornography before the age of 18 than in 2023, when the Online Safety Act became law.

More young people said they had seen porn before the age of 18 in 2025 (70%) compared with 2023 (64%).

More than a quarter (27%) said they had seen porn online by 11. The average age a child first sees pornography remained 13.

More vulnerable children had seen pornography earlier. Children who received free school meals, those with a social worker, those with special educational needs and those with disabilities – both physical and mental – were more likely to have seen online porn by 11 than their peers.

Nearly half of respondents (44%) agreed with the statement “Girls may say no at first but then can be persuaded to have sex”. Further analysis showed that 54% of girls and 41% of boys who had seen porn online agreed with the statement, compared with 46% of girls and 30% of boys who had not seen porn – indicating a link between porn exposure and attitudes.

More respondents said they had seen pornography online by accident (59%) than said they had deliberately sought it out (35%). The proportion of children accidentally seeing porn was 21 points higher than in 2023 (59% v 38%).

Networking and social media sites accounted for 80% of the main sources by which children accessed porn. X was the most common source of pornography for children, outstripping dedicated porn sites.

The gap between the number of children seeing pornography on X and those seeing it on dedicated porn sites has widened (45% v 35% in 2025, compared with 41% v 37% in 2023).

Most respondents had seen depictions of acts that are illegal under existing pornography laws or will become illegal through the crime and policing bill.

More than half (58%) had seen porn depicting strangulation, 44% reported having seen depictions of sex while asleep, and 36% had seen someone not consenting to or refusing a sex act, before they turned 18.

Further analysis found low numbers of children sought out violent or extreme content, meaning it was being served up to children, not that they were actively seeking it out.