All porn websites operating in the UK will be required to implement "highly effective" age verification measures within the next month, regulator Ofcom has announced. The move is designed to provide significantly greater protection for children online.
Major adult content providers, including Pornhub, Stripchat, and Jerkmate, have agreed to the strengthened measures. These new requirements, part of the Online Safety Act (OSA), will apply not only to dedicated adult sites but also to social media, search, and gaming services that host adult material.
Any company that fails to comply with the new age verification checks by July 25 faces severe penalties. Non-compliant services could be subject to substantial fines or even be made unavailable in the UK through a court order, reinforcing the regulator's commitment to enforcing the new standards.
The platforms must also make sure the measures do not compromise the privacy of adults or prevent them from accessing legal content.
Age assurance methods can include credit card checks, open banking or facial age estimation to verify or guess how old someone is.
The regulator said “the way in which these solutions are implemented in practice” will decide whether it is compliant with the OSA.
It comes after new Ofcom research found that 8% of eight to 14-year-olds in the UK had visited an online porn site or app on smartphones, tablets or computers in a month.
Earlier this month, Ofcom said it had launched a string of investigations into 4chan, a porn site operator and several file-sharing platforms over suspected failures to protect children, after it received complaints about illegal activity and potential sharing of child abuse images.
It said none of the services responded to its legal information requests.
Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom group director of online safety, said: “Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren’t suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling.
“But for too long children have been only a click away from harmful pornography online.
“Now, change is happening.
“These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s.”
A report looking into the use and effectiveness of age assurance methods will be published by Ofcom next year.
Charities welcomed the announcement but said the regulator needed to properly enforce the measures or even take them further.
Tim Cairns, online safety policy lead at Care, which campaigned for age verification for almost a decade, said: “Age verification measures that prevent children from accessing pornography are long overdue.
“Porn use is linked to sexual harassment in schools and violent sexual crime. Studies also demonstrate its harmful impact on relationships and mental health.
“It is vital that Ofcom gets this right.”
Rani Govender, policy manager for child safety online at the NSPCC, said: “It is time tech companies take responsibility for ensuring children have safe, age-appropriate experiences online and we welcome the progress that Ofcom are making in this space.
“To make this a reality, platforms must also effectively enforce their minimum age limits.
“There is currently a gap in legislation which the Government must address to ensure Ofcom can hold companies accountable for protecting young children online.”
