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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...

From 25 July 2025, pornography services reachable in the United Kingdom must operate "highly effective" age checks. Ofcom has now clarified how general online safety duties are being operationalised in the UK through specific expectations on product design and presentation. It explains its approach to evaluating compliance where any visibility precedes verification. In short, where an age check sits is not cosmetic. If pornographic material is visible before the age verification check, the duty may already have been breached. The statutory basis is the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA)....

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025 and came into force on the same day. The background to the Act was described in IRIS 2025-1:1/9. The Act states that digital assets are not prevented from being treated as a form of property merely because they are not easily categorised within existing legal categories of property, namely "things in possession", like a car or land and "things in action", such as stocks and shares.  This new legislation allows the courts to create rules that reflect the unique characteristics...

On 3 December 2025, the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom fined AVS Group Ltd GBP 1 million for failing to deploy "highly effective" age assurance under section 12 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA), and a further GBP 50 000 for failing to respond to a statutory information request, backed up with daily penalties if non-compliance persists. The decision covers a portfolio of adult sites and requires compliant age checks to stop children encountering pornographic content. It is the clearest signal yet that Ofcom has moved from programme oversight to active enforcement of the child-protection...

Ofcom determined that an episode of BBC’s, a public service broadcaster, current affairs series Panorama, entitled "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone" and produced by the independent production company HOYO Films (HOYO), was misleading and breached Rule 2.2 of the Broadcasting Code. This was due to the fact that the father of the 13 year old narratorheld a significant position in the Hamas administration. The Programme was broadcast on terrestrial TV on 17 February 2025 and made available on the BBC’s streaming service, BBC iPlayer, on 17 and 18 February...