Ofcom reports positive engagement on porn site age assurance

A number of providers of online pornography have implemented age assurance measured in line with the UK’s Online Safety Act. Those providers who have not responded to inquiries from the UK regulator may meet official enforcement action in the coming weeks, Ofcom has announced.

In January, the country’s communications regulator wrote to hundreds of providers which operate thousands of pornographic sites to remind them of their obligation to implement Highly Effective Age Assurance (HEAA) and prevent children from accessing pornographic content. Ofcom says that it has received positive responses.

“So far, we have had positive engagement from across the sector and a number of providers have implemented highly effective age assurance in response to our enforcement programme,” the agency says.

The Online Safety Act imposes hefty fines on platforms that fail to introduce guardrails against minors accessing pornography. It also requires them to implement “robust measures” to stamp out fraud, terrorism, child sexual abuse material and other criminal activities.

Ofcom has already started cracking down on platforms that flaunt the new rules. In March, the agency handed out a £1.05 million (US$1.3 million) fine to OnlyFans’ parent company, Fenix International for failing to provide accurate information on its age estimation technology.

All services allowing pornography, including those hosting user-generated pornographic content, will need to implement Highly Effective Age Assurance (HEAA) by July 2025.

Ofcom has already started implementing the Online Safety Act’s illegal harms code which prevents users from encountering illegal content. The code covers more than 100,000 online services, including Facebook, Google, X and more, and comes with penalties of up to £18 million ($23 million) or 10 percent of the offending firm’s worldwide revenue.

Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence recently hosted a webinar for age verification providers and businesses seeking clarity on Ofcom-recommended AV methods. It is available on-demand.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometrics  |  legislation  |  Ofcom  |  Online Safety Act  |  regulation  |  UK age verification