A new report published today by Ofcom reveals that age checks are now being deployed at an unprecedented scale across the pornography, social media, dating and gaming sectors. Many services are taking steps to ensure these checks are highly effective in practice, in line with Ofcom’s industry guidance.

The proportion of children being asked to prove their age who encountered highly effective age checks increased from 25% to 43% between July 2025 and January 2026. All of the UK’s top 10 and the majority of the top 100 porn sites now have age checks in place.^[3]

Among the minority of online children who attempt to access pornography (8%), the presence of age checks acts as an effective deterrent. ^[4] Half of these children only reached sites with age checks in place. Nearly nine in ten of these children’s visits (87%) to porn sites were for under 30 seconds, and 65% were for less than 10 seconds.

Despite this significant progress, the job is not done. Ofcom says that more action is needed from the tech industry to increase the effectiveness of age checks to protect children online, particularly with a view to the Government’s planned expansion of age assurance measures to restrict under 16s’ use of social media.

Specifically, Ofcom’s report identifies shortcomings in some services’ implementation of age checks, as well as areas requiring further collaboration and innovation from the wider tech industry.

The tech regulator has identified shortcomings in the following four areas:

1. Too many porn sites still don’t have age checks in place.

Many porn sites with age checks in place have experienced sharp declines in traffic, while some without have gained in popularity. Four per cent of children who participated in our study visited at least one porn service with no age checks in place.

To combat this, Ofcom says that all porn services without age checks must introduce them without delay, in line with the regulator’s guidance.

So far, Ofcom has opened 23 investigations into the providers of 88 adult services. We will continue to take action against services which flout the law and put children at risk, using the full extent of our enforcement powers.

2. Children finding porn site without age checks via search.

In many cases, children are able to easily find porn sites without age checks via search engines.

Ofcom’s report found that 33% of results returned on the first page of Google Search and 54% on Bing were to pornography sites without age checks or other protections.

To fight this, Google and Bing will be working with Ofcom to prioritise practical solutions to tackle the discoverability of porn sites without age checks via their services.

3. Serious doubts about age inference methods used by some popular social media companies, with TikTok under investigation.

Under Ofcom’s Children’s Codes, social media companies must use highly effective age assurance to identify who their child users are to tailor their online experience and protect them from harmful material – including pornography, self-harm and suicide content.

Some social media companies have chosen to rely primarily on age inference methods to identify their child users. This is despite them not being included in Ofcom’s guidance as methods that are capable of being highly effective for this purpose.

Evidence in the report reinforces Ofcom’s long-standing, serious doubts about the effectiveness of some of these models. In some cases, companies may be failing to correctly detect significant numbers of children on their platforms, meaning children risk being exposed to harmful content.

Ofcom says it has particular concerns about the effectiveness of TikTok’s approach to age assurance, with the regulator launching a formal investigtion into whether it is complying with its duties to protect children from encountering harmful content on its service.

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4. Age checks need implementing more effectively, including by dating services.

Despite having age checks in place to prevent children’s access, over one in ten 15 to 17-year-olds were continuing to visit and spend time on three of the most used dating apps in December 2025. This suggested that their age assurance methods needed to be improved and more closely aligned with Ofcom’s guidance.

Ofcom says that all relevant services must ensure their age checks are highly effective, which means following Ofcom’s guidance, conducting regular due dilliengece, and complying with privacy and data protection laws.

Many dating services have started improving their age assurance processes following engagement with Ofcom. The regulator now expects them to continue to make further changes, including by introducing a ‘challenge age’ and ‘liveness detection’.

Next Steps

Ofcom’s research shows that social media firms’ current age inference methods are insufficient in preventing children from accessing a service at the point of entry to implement a ban, nor can they be used to enforce minimum age restrictions effectively. As such, sites and apps must strengthen their approach.

Building on its existing guidance, Ofcom will deliver to Parliament by the end of October a rapid assessment of what highly effective age checks look like in practice to determine whether someone is over 16. This will help inform parliamentary debate ahead of potential age restrictions coming into force in 2027.

The wider industry should also be prepared to play their part in strengthening protections for children.

Ofcom is set to publish a statutory report about the role of app-store level protections by January 2027.

“Age checks are a cornerstone of the UK’s online safety laws. When implemented properly, our evidence shows that age checks are helping to create a safer life online for children in the UK,” Ofcom’s chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said.

“But the job is not done and tech companies need to go further. Too many services have no or inadequate age checks in place, which is not good enough. We’ve today launched an investigation into whether TikTok’s age checks are effective in preventing children from seeing harmful content on its platform. And search engines must urgently work with us to solve the problem of children finding porn sites without age checks too easily via their results pages.

“As the UK prepares for further new social media restrictions at 16, the age check landscape is already shifting towards a stronger, whole-of-system approach, which is important to avoid any single point of failure. We want to see continued innovation from the wider tech industry to strengthen protections for children – including from operating systems and at an app store and device-level.”