The UK’s communications regulatory body Ofcom has fined AVS Group Ltd, which runs a group of porn sites, £1 million ($1.34 million) for failing to comply with the country’s new, tougher age verification for porn access laws.
The fine is the third dished out by Ofcom over porn age verification compliance by since laws were toughened in July, and is by far the largest. AVS was fined a further £50,000 ($67,000) for not responding to Ofcom, and will be fined £1,000 ($1,300) a day from December 6, 2025 unless it implements “highly effective” age verification for its porn sites. Ofcom investigated AVS over 18 porn sites that the company runs.
The fine was announced by Ofcom on December 4. By the afternoon of that day, some of the investigated sites appeared to now require age verification registration before any porn could be accessed through them, with images on homepages blurred.
Earlier this year Ofcom fined some porn sites and apps in two separate age verification cases, issuing fines that totalled £75,000 ($100,000).
From July 25 this year, under the UK’s Online Safety Act, sites that publish or allow the sharing of porn needed to implement robust age verification checks for UK users, to ensure that users are aged 18 or over. Ofcom said that it had investigated a total of 76 sites and apps following the change, accusing many of ignoring or falling short of the new standards.
When the first two fines were issued by Ofcom, the relatively small fine amounts hardly seemed hefty enough to strike fear into the hearts of non-complying porn sites. Things are, however, starting to look a bit different now.
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