UK age verification deadline one month out for sites offering adult content

UK internet users have exactly one month left to access porn sites with one click of a button. That’s how much time is left before Ofcom begins enforcing the UK Online Safety Act’s age verification requirement for content providers hosting adult content or material that could be harmful to children.

Lina Ghazal, head of regulatory and public affairs at email age estimation specialist VerifyMy, calls it “one of the biggest shake-ups of online safety in the UK, which will change the internet for millions of users, websites and platforms this summer.”

“Ofcom has vowed to enforce compliance when the rules go live on 25 July and has already opened investigations into several adult sites that ignored an earlier deadline to share their safeguarding plans,” says Ghazal in comments sent to Biometric Update.

“With more than one in five Brits estimated to watch online pornography, adult providers in particular are likely to be watching their competition and could leave it until the eleventh hour to bring in age checks. The good news for them and online safety campaigners is that the technology is reliable and easy to implement.”

UK Age Assurance Market Report & Buyers Guide

A recent market report and buyer’s guide from Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence goes deep into the UK market for age verification and age estimation technologies collected under the umbrella of “age assurance.” While the sector is still young, there are trailblazing firms that have been providing age checks for years. Rapid innovation has also seen a proliferation of methods, from facial age estimation to document verification to email-based inference methods. International standards are developing. And noncompliance is about to get costly.

The topic is also covered in a webinar from Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence, aimed at providing clarity on Ofcom-recommended age verification methods.

The age check requirement comes into effect on July 25, 2025.

Article Topics

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