LOS ANGELES—Cindy Gallop, the founder and chief executive officer of "real-world" porn platform MakeLoveNotPorn (MLNP), refuted claims that her platform is noncompliant with the United Kingdom's sweeping Online Safety Act after allegations surfaced that the site was exposing minors to age-restricted content without proper age assurance platforms.
The allegations surfaced after Gallop announced a new public education partnership with Samantha Niblett, a Labour Party MP for South Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. Both are promoting a "Summer of Sex" campaign to promote comprehensive sex education throughout the United Kingdom, as AVN reported last week. Right-wing British tabloid The Daily Mail first reported that MakeLoveNotPorn was allegedly "breaching" age verification requirements under the law, as enforced by U.K. digital regulator Ofcom.
Mail security correspondent Abul Thaer charged that MLNP, which is itself an interactive sexual education platform, "only allows a 12-second preview before requiring payment, during which viewers can already see explicit visuals." However, this was a mischaracterization, according to Gallop in a statement to AVN.
Gallop wrote, "We had a technical glitch with our site, but I'm happy to confirm we were and are fully compliant with the Online Safety Act. We had a temporary disruption due to a technical issue we addressed asap, and can confirm full compliance."
"It is this Labour government that is implementing the Online Safety Act in order to prevent children from seeing content that is not age-appropriate," Niblett said via The Daily Mail. "I was assured MLNP was Ofcom-compliant, having only ever signed in myself using my own age to access the site."
Niblett presents the effort for the "Summer of Sex" as a tool to help take on the Starmer government's crackdown on "harmful online content," notes Politics Home coverage. AVN has reported on this effort, including bans on consensual choking and simulated age-play pornography.
