United Kingdom

[GB] Ofcom escalates Online Safety Act enforcement with new fines over age-assurance failures on adult websites

IRIS 2026-3:1/10

Alexandros K. Antoniou

University of Essex

The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has intensified enforcement of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) by imposing two additional financial penalties on operators of adult websites that failed to implement legally required age-assurance measures. The decisions, issued in February 2026 against Kick Online Entertainment S.A. (Kick) and 8579 LLC, follow earlier enforcement action against AVS Group and other providers (see IRIS 2026-1:1/25) and demonstrate that the regulator has moved decisively from oversight of compliance programmes to active sanctioning. Notably, the GBP 1.35 million penalty imposed on 8579 LLC represents the largest fine yet under this part of the OSA regime, signalling a tightening approach to enforcement of the Act’s child-protection duties.

Both cases arise from Ofcom’s enforcement programme launched in January 2025 to oversee compliance with statutory age-assurance requirements for services hosting pornographic material online. That programme initially targeted services publishing their own explicit content before expanding in July 2025 to cover platforms allowing user-generated pornographic material (classified as Part 3 services under the legislation). Under section 12 of the OSA, such providers must ensure that children are prevented from encountering pornographic content by deploying "highly effective" age-assurance mechanisms.

The two investigations share several core features. In each case, Ofcom concluded that the provider had failed to implement age-assurance measures that met the statutory standards during the relevant period. Both providers were therefore found to have breached section 12. In addition, each case involved a separate infringement of section 102(8) of the Act, which obliges regulated services to respond to statutory information requests issued by Ofcom during an investigation. The regulator determined that both companies had failed to respond within the required timeframe.

The enforcement measures adopted also follow a consistent pattern. Ofcom imposed financial penalties for the substantive breach of the age-assurance duty alongside additional fines for the procedural failure to provide requested information. In both cases, the regulator also issued compliance directions requiring the providers to disclose the full list of adult websites they operate. The decisions further introduced daily financial penalties that would apply if the providers failed to comply with those directions within the specified timeframe. This combination of sanctions reflects Ofcom’s use of both substantive and information-gathering powers under the OSA.

More specifically, the Kick Online investigation concerned the adult website motherless.com. Ofcom concluded that the platform had not deployed age-assurance measures capable of preventing children from accessing pornographic content for several months following the expansion of the enforcement programme to Part 3 services. After the regulator issued a provisional decision during the investigation, Kick introduced an age-assurance system that Ofcom considered capable of meeting the statutory standard.

In its final confirmation decision, Ofcom imposed a GBP 800 000 penalty for the section 12 breach and fined the company an additional GBP 30 000 for the section 102(8) violation (failure to respond in time to a statutory information request). In addition, the provider was required to supply Ofcom with a complete list of all pornographic websites it operates, with a daily penalty of GBP 200 applying if it fails to provide the information within the deadline.

A separate enforcement decision concerned 8579 LLC, which operated several adult websites, including crazyporn.xxx, hoes.tube and love4porn.com. Similarly, Ofcom found that the company had failed to implement effective age-assurance safeguards on these services for a period following the July 2025 expansion of the enforcement programme. Regarding another platform operated by the company, justpornflix.com, the regulator determined that the absence of compliant age-assurance measures remained ongoing at the time of the decision.

In light of the breaches identified, Ofcom imposed a GBP 1.35 million fine for the section 12 contravention, representing the largest penalty imposed so far under the OSA’s age-assurance enforcement framework. The regulator also ordered the provider to implement compliant age-assurance measures on justpornflix.com. A daily penalty of GBP 1 000 will apply until the service complies or the enforcement period expires.

As in the Kick case, Ofcom also determined that the provider had breached section 102(8). A further GBP 50 000 penalty was imposed for that infringement. The company must also provide Ofcom with a full list of all sites it operates, with a daily penalty of GBP 250 applying if it fails to do so.

The Kick and 8579 LLC decisions illustrate how Ofcom is now applying the enforcement tools available under the OSA across multiple providers operating adult websites accessible in the UK. Both cases involve the same core statutory duties (i.e., preventing children from encountering pornographic material and responding to regulatory information requests) but they also reveal differences in scale and outcome. The investigation into Kick concerned a single principal service and concluded after the operator had introduced compliant age-assurance measures, resulting in a lower financial penalty. By contrast, the case against 8579 LLC involved multiple platforms and an ongoing compliance failure, which was reflected in a larger fine and stronger corrective directions.