Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has welcomed a “speedy and decisive” crackdown by Ofcom on dozens of pornographic websites failing to implement robust age verification, marking the first major enforcement under the new Online Safety Act.
Ofcom confirmed today it is investigating 34 adult websites to determine whether they are complying with legal obligations to prevent under-18s from accessing explicit material. The action comes just weeks after the new age-check rules came into force.
“This enforcement goes to the very heart of what the Online Safety Act is here to do – protecting children from pornographic material,” said Kyle in a statement released this afternoon.
He drew a clear comparison to offline standards, saying: “No one in their right mind would think it appropriate for a child to walk into a shop and freely buy a top-shelf magazine – so why should we allow them to freely wander on to a website offering the same – if not more disturbing – age-inappropriate content?”
The Technology Secretary also pushed back against critics of the new law who have argued that age verification could amount to censorship or infringe on adult privacy. “These laws have nothing to do with censorship or policing adults seeking to access legal content,” he said. “Those who suggest otherwise are playing politics with child safety and have no practical alternatives for protecting our children from content they should never see – content that can cause lasting, even fatal, damage.”
Ofcom now has the power to investigate and potentially fine non-compliant websites under the Online Safety Act, which passed into law in 2023. The regulator can also block access to sites that continue to breach the rules.
This week’s announcement is seen by ministers as a signal that enforcement will be swift and meaningful. The government has made online safety, particularly for children, a key priority, with measures also targeting cyberbullying, grooming, and harmful self-harm content on social media platforms.
A list of the 34 sites under investigation has not yet been made public, but Ofcom says it will publish more detail as enforcement proceedings progress.
