A pornography company that runs 18 adult websites has been fined £1m by Ofcom for failing to implement robust age checks, marking the largest penalty under the UK's Online Safety Act. The Belize-based AVS Group was also fined an additional £50,000 for not responding to information requests.
Ofcom's investigation found that AVS's age verification measures were not highly effective, despite the company's claims. The firm now has 72 hours to introduce compliant age checks or face a daily penalty of £1,000, plus a £300 daily fine for failing to respond to information requests, up to a maximum of 60 days.
This is the third fine issued by Ofcom under the Online Safety Act, which introduced strict age-checking requirements in July. The regulator has opened investigations into 92 online services, prioritising sites with millions of monthly UK visitors based on potential harm. Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom's group director of online safety, said the fine was part of a 'broader tide turning' in cleaning up platforms, with more than 90 websites still under investigation, including 83 pornography sites.
Ofcom also warned that a major unnamed social media platform may face formal action if it fails to improve its compliance procedures, having submitted inadequate risk assessments. Additionally, the regulator is reviewing another major platform's systems for removing illegal terror and hate content, including antisemitic and anti-Muslim material.
The Online Safety Act allows for fines of up to £18m or 10% of annual revenue, and platforms can be blocked in the UK. Since the rules came into force, more than half of the top 100 adult services in the UK have introduced age checks. Griffiths noted a surge in VPN use from 600,000 to over 1 million when age checks were introduced, but said the number has since dropped significantly.
