The UK Online Safety Act, age checks on adult platforms and what Ofcom has enforced

Ofcom's guidance of 16 January 2025 set the calendar. Services that publish their own pornographic content, which the Act calls Part 5 services, had to begin introducing age checks immediately. Services that allow user-generated pornographic content, Part 3 services, had to complete a children's access assessment by 16 April 2025 and have age checks fully in place by July 2025. Ofcom's enforcement pages give the operative date as 25 July 2025.

The method has to be "highly effective". Ofcom's list of methods capable of meeting that bar includes open banking, photo ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile network operator checks, credit card checks, digital identity services and email-based age estimation. Self-declaration of age and payment methods that do not require the user to be 18 are stated not to qualify. Pornographic content must not be visible before or during the check.

Enforcement is now on the record. The enforcement programme page, updated 4 September 2026, lists penalties for failing to use highly effective age assurance under section 12 of the Act: £800,000 against Kick Online Entertainment for the period 25 July to 29 December 2025, £700,000 against the provider of Xgroovy, £600,000 against the provider of fapello.com, and £500,000 against Youngtek Solutions, each with further penalties of £30,000 to £100,000 for not answering information requests. Ofcom states it can fine up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater, and can seek a court order to block a site in the UK.

For a creator whose fans are in the UK, the practical consequence is on the page rather than in a filing: on a service in scope of the Act, a UK visitor meets an age check before the pornographic content, and Ofcom notes that some providers have responded by blocking UK IP addresses rather than by checking age. What the checks have done to UK traffic on any given platform is not published by Ofcom or by the platforms.