LONDON—The United Kingdom's digital regulator, Ofcom, has levied fines against the operator of a network of adult websites for failing to comply with age verification requirements laid out by the sweeping Online Safety Act.
According to a press release published by Ofcom, the company known as Youngtek Solutions was fined £500,000 for failures to comply with the law in deploying age gates for its network of adult websites, which include TNAflix, ImageFap and MovieFap.
An additional £100,000 was levied against Youngtek Solutions for failures to respond to information inquiries sent by Ofcom. Ofcom has the authority to issue such requests and they are construed as legally binding within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. The grand total of £600,000 equates to well over $800,000 ordered to be paid to His Majesty's Treasury.
“Adult sites must use robust age checks to protect children in the U.K. from porn online, and we’ve shown we will use the full extent of our enforcement powers to secure this outcome," said George Lusty, Ofcom's director of enforcement, in a statement.
"Any company that fails to comply—or misses important deadlines when we demand information—can expect to pay the price," Lusty added, broadly mentioning firms that are under investigation by Ofcom for similar violations to those of Youngtek.
