Ofcom fines porn company 600,00 for failing to introduce strong age checks

Porn company fined £600,000 by Ofcom over age check failings

4 days ago

Laura CressTechnology reporter

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Ofcom has fined a porn company £600,000 for failing to introduce proper age verification measures on its websites.

The media regulator said Youngtek Solutions Ltd, which runs four adult sites, did not have age checks to ensure UK visitors were over 18 and prevent children from accessing the content.

Ofcom said the company has since brought in verification – but was not complying with its rules between July and September 2025.

The firm was fined £500,000 for the lack of age checks, plus a further £100,000 for not initially responding to Ofcom’s information requests.

Since July 2025, platforms operating in the UK that allow pornography are required to have “highly effective” age checks in place to make sure children can’t access age-restricted or harmful content, under the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA).

Under the OSA, the regulator can fine firms up to £18m or 10% of their turnover (whichever is greater). It can also apply for a court order to block a site in the UK in the most serious cases.

George Lusty, director of enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Adult sites must use robust age checks to protect children in the UK from porn online, and we’ve shown we will use the full extent of our enforcement powers to secure this outcome.

“Any company that fails to comply – or misses important deadlines when we demand information – can expect to pay the price.”

Since the new law came in, Ofcom has issued major fines to several adult websites for not having robust age checks in place.

Ofcom said both AVS Group and Kick Online Entertainment SA had since rolled out age checks on some of their sites. It did not give any information whether any of the groups had since paid the fines issued to them.

According to Ofcom, two thirds of the top 100 pornography services in the UK have deployed age checks as of April.

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