Eye-catching digital hoardings reveal search term among other queries such as Dismaland, Strictly Come Dancing and cricket scores

Large digital billboards around London, paid for by Google, have been spotted by the public – with a surprising revelation displayed for all to see. The brightly coloured boards – which show popular search terms being used – declared boldly that the UK “is searching for revenge porn sites”.

Members of the public were informed by the loud advertisement this week that among the more mundane queries on the search engine – such as looking up Dismaland, Strictly Come Dancing and the cricket scores – there was also a darker side to searching. Revenge porn, the distribution of sexually explicit content without the consent of the people involved, was a top term tapped into keyboards.

Some people had not expected to see such an honest admission during their commute. One reacted on social media with: “Good to know. Thanks Google!” Someone else said: “Depressing advertising.” Others posted images of the Google Trends announcement, which had appeared on advertising spaces in roundabouts and underground stations.

Ryan Bassil (@ryanbassil) Google's digital billboards at Old Street Station seem to be working, then. pic.twitter.com/honkxznkFk

whoojemaflip (@whoojemaflip) The UK is searching for "Revenge Porn". Good to know. Thanks Google!

Matthew Chapman (@MattChapmanUK) What is the UK googling? 'Revenge porn sites' according to the massive Google billboard on Old Street roundabout pic.twitter.com/7KRMU74pzY

The internet giant itself did not mention “revenge porn” in its summary of trending topics in the UK:

Google UK (@GoogleUK) #GoogleTrends: What did the UK search for this week? Your wrap-up of this week's trending topics... pic.twitter.com/yufgo3t9Vx

Earlier this summer, Google announced its plan to exclude “revenge porn” from future internet searches. Amit Singhal, a senior vice-president, wrote in a post on the Google public policy blog that the company would soon issue online forms through which members of the public will be able to request that revenge porn content involving them no longer shows up in Google searches. Links to such images will not be included in Google search results on that person, though they will remain online.

“Revenge porn images are intensely personal and emotionally damaging, and serve only to degrade the victims – predominantly women,” Singhal wrote. Interest in the search term “revenge porn”, however, has grown rapidly and peaked this year, Google Trends shows:

The search engine has broken down interest in the search term regionally too, with the UK at the top, followed by the US and the Philippines at the bottom of the chart. Searches related to revenge porn, according to Google Trends, include: “ex revenge porn” and “girlfriend revenge”.

Google trends Photograph: Google trends

Late last year Google made history when it become the first company to rent the world’s largest and most expensive digital billboard in Times Square, New York. The billboard, eight storeys high, was estimated to cost $2.5m (£1.6m) to hire for four weeks. Three hundred thousand pedestrians are said to pass by the billboard every day.