Ofcom has launched investigations into the compliance of four companies – which collectively run 34 pornography sites – with new age-check requirements under the UK’s Online Safety Act.

On 25 July, new rules under the Act came into force requiring sites that allow users to upload pornographic material to use age assurance to prevent children from accessing that content. Ahead of this deadline, thousands of sites committed to doing this, rather than restricting access in the UK.

Since then, Ofcom has been checking compliance with these new duties.

With that in mind, the regulator has stated that it has opened formal investigations into whether the following providers have highly effective age checks in place to protect children from encountering pornography across 34 websites: 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd.

These companies have been prioritised based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operate and their user numbers. Collectively, the websites operated by these companies have over 9 million unique monthly UK visitors.

These new cases add to Ofcom’s 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, an online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, First Time Videos LLC and Itai Tech Ltd. Ofcom says it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming weeks and months.

What Happens Next

Ofcom will now gather and analyse evidence to determine whether any contraventions have occurred. If the assessment indicates compliance failures, the regulator will issue provisional notices of contravention to providers, who can then make representations on Ofcom’s findings, before it makes a final decision.

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Where Ofcom identifies compliance failures, it can require platforms to take specific steps to come into compliance. It can also impose fines of up to £18m or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.

Where appropriate, in the most serious cases, Ofcom can seek a court order for ‘business disruption measures’, such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring Internet Service Providers to block access to a site in the UK.