16/01/2025
“Enforcement guidelines released on Thursday, which will apply to social media platforms as well as sites such as OnlyFans and Pornhub, stipulate that children will no longer be able to simply assert they are 18 to view po*******hy online.
The communications watchdog also said adults would have to start proving their age – with methods including facial age estimation, credit card checks or matching with a photo-ID.
The requirements around the “highly effective” age checks will start coming into force this spring for several thousand services that display or publish their own p**nographic content. The rules will bite on so-called peer-to-peer and social media services by July, with potential sanctions for breaches including fines of up to 10% of a company’s turnover.
The average age that children in England first encounter po*******hy is 13, with one in 10 viewing it as young as nine years old, according to research from the children’s commissioner for England, who has said depictions of “degradation, sexual coercion, aggression and exploitation are commonplace”.
Ofcom has not set a level at which age verification software needs to be effective (eg 90%), but it said it could do this in the future as it continues moves to enforce the Online Safety Act.
“For too long, many online services which allow p**n and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services,” said Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive. “Either they don’t ask or, when they do, the checks are minimal and easy to avoid. That means companies have effectively been treating all users as if they’re adults, leaving children potentially exposed to p**n and other types of harmful content. Today, this starts to change.”
Regulator Ofcom releases guidelines that call for use of face scans, credit cards checks or photo-ID
