UK's Ofcom releases report about age-verification law

Close to a year after the enactment of the UK's age assurance law, the Online Safety Act, Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, has released a report on its progress. The Online Safety Act requires robust age checks for sites that have content "restricted to adults," which extends from pornography to non-explicit content like the r/stopsmoking subreddit. Ofcom has found that these age checks are now being deployed on an "unprecedented scale" across various sectors: porn, social media, dating, and gaming. Between July 2025, when the law went into effect, and Jan. 2026, the proportion of children "being asked to prove their age who encountered highly effective age checks" increased from 25 to 43 percent. AdultFriendFinder — readers’ pick for casual connections Hinge — popular choice for regular meetups Between July and Dec. last year, 69 million age checks were completed across a sample of 32 services, which Ofcom says is a 23-fold increase on the previous six months. According to Ofcom's Children's Passive Online Monitoring study, eight percent of children aged 8 to 14 who participated visited porn providers. Half of them only reached sites with age checks in place. The majority