Ofcom has launched investigations into five companies that collectively operate at least 22 pornography sites in an age-check crackdown under the Online Safety Act.

Since the new age verification duties came out on 25 July, Ofcom has been checking compliance from major sites, with all the ten 10 most-visited sites, as well as many smaller ones, introducing new age checks for UK users.

Since then, Ofcom has opened formal investigations into whether five providers have highly effective age checks in place to protect children from encountering pornography across 22 websites.

The sites include: Cyberitic, LLC, Web Prime Inc, Youngtek Solutions Ltd, ZD Media s.r.o and the provider of xgroovy.

Ofcom says they have prioritised these based on the risk of harm they pose and their user numbers, including where there have been significant increases in their user numbers since the 25 July deadline.

Collectively, these sites have over 8 million unique monthly UK visitors.

Ofcom is also expanding the scope of two existing investigations into 8579 LLC and Itai Tech. These investigations centre on the firms’ compliance on the age check requirements, but have been expanded to assess if they have failed to respond adequately to statutory information requests from Ofcom.

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The regulator is now gathering and analysing evidence to determine any contraventions. If the assessment indicates any compliance failures, it will issue provisional orders before making its final decision.

Ofcom is also empowered to impose fines of up to £18m or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, which ever is higher, if it determines the firms are non-compliant.

Further, the regulator can issue a court order for ‘business disruption measures’, which could require payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from the platform, or for internet service providers to block access to the site in the UK.