LONDON—Fenix International Limited, the London-based parent company of OnlyFans, was fined by the United Kingdom's communications regulator for shortcomings in complying with the Online Safety Act's national age verification requirements. The U.K.'s communications regulator, Ofcom, announced the fines Thursday.
According to Ofcom's press announcement, Fenix International Limited was fined £1.05 million ($1.36 million) for failing to accurately respond to the agency's formal requests for information about its age assurance measures used on the platform.
The premium social media platform says people who visit must be at least 18 years old; that has been the standard minimum use age for OnlyFans since the platform's launch in 2016. Previously, Fenix reported to Ofcom that it flagged anyone who appeared to be under the age of 23. However, the age verification vendor that OnlyFans uses for this type of confirmation said the age target that was set by Fenix initially was the age of 20, according to a BBC report.
"The purpose of a challenge age is to account for potential error in the age estimate where someone is mistakenly predicted to be older than [they] are," reads Ofcom's statement. "It is similar to the approach used for selling alcohol, which is widely used, for example, in licensed premises, shops, and supermarkets."
Ofcom launched an investigation into OnlyFans in 2024 for not properly implementing adult "age verification measures in such a way as to sufficiently protect under-18s." The investigation was prompted by accusations that OnlyFans failed to comply with its statutory duties to provide "complete and accurate information" about AV.
Yoti, a London-based online safety software provider, was disclosed as the company's primary age verification vendor when Ofcom announced the investigation in 2024.
Ofcom says that Fenix has "contravened its duties to provide accurate and complete information to Ofcom in response to two statutory information requests," per the Online Safety Act requirements. The investigation raised many concerns, including that Fenix took well over 16 months to discover that it had provided Ofcom with inaccurate information. The Ofcom statement from today says, "We believe robust fact-checking processes would have resulted in the incorrect submission coming to light sooner."
"When we use our statutory powers to request information from platforms, they are required, by law, to ensure it is complete, accurate, and delivered to us on time," Ofcom enforcement director Suzanne Cater said in the same statement. "Receiving accurate and complete information is fundamental for Ofcom to do its job as a regulator and to understand and monitor how platforms are operating. We will hold platforms to high standards and will not hesitate to take enforcement action where we find failings."
A spokesperson for OnlyFans told U.K. news outlet The Telegraph: “OnlyFans recognises the importance of providing Ofcom with accurate and timely information. We welcome the conclusion of this process and Ofcom’s previous decision to close their investigation into our age assurance measures.”
Editor note: The article was update to correct misreported technical information pertaining to how the age verification provider's software end user, that being Fenix, sets target ages.
