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
Jul 15, 2026 → Jul 16, 2026
Ofcom concerned TikTok’s age verification is ineffective, leaving some exposed to posts on suicide, self-harm and pornography TikTok is under formal investigation over concerns it has failed to protect children from harmful content, the…
Read original at The Guardian →3 updates from 3 sources over 1 day.
Ofcom concerned TikTok’s age verification is ineffective, leaving some exposed to posts on suicide, self-harm and pornography TikTok is under formal investigation over concerns it has failed to protect children from…
Read original at The Guardian →An investigation has been launched into whether TikTok is doing enough to keep children off its platform. The probe by media regulator Ofcom comes a month after the UK government announced that under-16's would be…
Read original at BBC →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…
Read original at Mashable →What this story stands on. Tier 0 is a primary record or the subject's own words; higher tiers must be attributed, never stated as bare fact.
Ofcom concerned TikTok’s age verification is ineffective, leaving some exposed to posts on suicide, self-harm and pornography TikTok is under formal investigation over concerns it has failed to protect children from harmful content, the…
View source →An investigation has been launched into whether TikTok is doing enough to keep children off its platform. The probe by media regulator Ofcom comes a month after the UK government announced that under-16's would be banned entirely from a…
View source →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…
View source →Tier key: T0 = Primary source · T1 = Wire · T2 = Outlet report · T3 = Commentary
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