LONDON—Pornography websites operating within the United Kingdom's digital space are being referred by the country's digital regulator, Ofcom, to its enforcement team for failure to implement required age verification mechanisms.
Per Part 5 of the country's Online Safety Act, adult websites are now required to maintain "highly effective age assurance" (HEAA) protocols to prevent minors from accessing adult entertainment content.
According to an Ofcom statement published Thursday, the office started the process of enforcing the new law in January 2025 by writing to hundreds of adult content providers that collectively account for thousands of platforms.
"We asked them to respond with details of their plans to meet their obligations to impose HEAA on their sites and anticipated timescales," reads the Ofcom statement. The deadline for responses was between March 3 to 6. Ofcom's statement adds, "So far, we have had positive engagement from across the sector, and a number of providers have implemented HEAA in response to our programme. We are reviewing compliance plans and implementation timescales for other services in scope of these duties."
However, platforms that have not responded to Ofcom's requirements are being referred to the enforcement team at Ofcom for further review.
"We will assess such sites and consider in the coming weeks whether formal enforcement action is appropriate," reads the statement. Additionally, July 2025 is the deadline for all regulated services that allow pornography, including user-uploaded porn content under Part 3 of the Online Safety Act, to have HEAA policies in place.
James Murray, Treasury minister for His Majesty's Government, appeared in an interview with broadcaster Sky News on Friday, saying the Online Safety Act is not up for negotiation and must be followed. Murray explained, "Those important protections are not up for negotiation. Those basic protections are things we want to keep. But more broadly, we need to leave the negotiators with some space to conduct those negotiations and secure a deal."
