{"id":7266,"date":"2026-07-16T04:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7266"},"modified":"2026-07-16T04:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:09:14","slug":"uks-ofcom-releases-report-about-age-verification-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7266","title":{"rendered":"UK&#8217;s Ofcom releases report about age-verification law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article\">\n<p>Close to a year after the enactment of the UK&#8217;s age assurance law, the <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/what-does-uk-age-verification-mean\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">Online Safety Act<\/a>, Ofcom, the UK&#8217;s communications regulator, has released a report on its progress. <\/p>\n<p>The Online Safety Act requires robust age checks for sites that have content &#8220;restricted to adults,&#8221; which extends from pornography to <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/age-verification-is-going-to-destroy-the-entire-internet\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">non-explicit content<\/a> like the r\/stopsmoking subreddit.<\/p>\n<h2>UK age verification, one year later<\/h2>\n<p>Ofcom has found that these age checks are now being deployed on an &#8220;unprecedented scale&#8221; 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 &#8220;being asked to\u00a0prove their age\u00a0who\u00a0encountered\u00a0highly effective age checks&#8221; increased from 25 to 43 percent. <\/p>\n<section>\n<section class=\"relative p-6 md:p-8 mx-auto w-full max-w-3xl border-2 md:pt-10 md:pb-10 border-secondary-300 accent-cut-2 accent-cut-border-2&#10;&#10;        mt-12 md:mt-16&#10;&#10;        \" data-ga-module=\"offer-group\" data-ga-element=\"offer-group\" data-commerce-block=\"\">\n<p>Hookup apps for everyone<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-base font-sans !leading-5 md:!leading-none mt-0\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/cc.mashable.com\/v1\/otc\/03bCs1jQxEftXGkZ7A6Km1e?merchant=03vbrF3dt0eHolWvTfpJFy4&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fadultfriendfinder.com%2F&amp;template=article&amp;module=offer-group&amp;element=offer-group&amp;item=offer-title&amp;position=1&amp;element_label=AdultFriendFinder&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle-route-prefix%2Flife%2Fofcom-age-verification-law-report-update&amp;group_uuid=06PfgJzmas37I1KxqZcmq3N&amp;product_uuid=0785xyRmCGmZr9jOKTCrb47&amp;object_type=article&amp;object_uuid=07yitjlkmFLL939azlm712g\" data-commerce=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"sponsored\" data-parent-group=\"affiliate-link\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-element=\"offer-group\" data-ga-action=\"offer-title\" data-ga-item=\"offer-title\" data-ga-label=\"AdultFriendFinder\" data-ga-position=\"1\" data-ga-module=\"offer-group\" style=\";\" class=\"roundup-offer-link\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"\" data-ga-click=\"\">AdultFriendFinder<\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n                                             \u2014<br \/>\n                    <strong>readers\u2019 pick for casual connections<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-base font-sans !leading-5 md:!leading-none mt-4\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/cc.mashable.com\/v1\/otc\/03bCs1jQxEftXGkZ7A6Km1e?merchant=042gDENelxmeb6yAh5SuxS0&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.money.com%2Fpr%2Fs25205135e63&amp;template=article&amp;module=offer-group&amp;element=offer-group&amp;item=offer-title&amp;position=2&amp;element_label=Tinder&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle-route-prefix%2Flife%2Fofcom-age-verification-law-report-update&amp;group_uuid=06PfgJzmas37I1KxqZcmq3N&amp;product_uuid=05s8DoZEeORPCFUsPF8yGg0&amp;object_type=article&amp;object_uuid=07yitjlkmFLL939azlm712g\" data-commerce=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"sponsored\" data-parent-group=\"affiliate-link\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-element=\"offer-group\" data-ga-action=\"offer-title\" data-ga-item=\"offer-title\" data-ga-label=\"Tinder\" data-ga-position=\"2\" data-ga-module=\"offer-group\" style=\";\" class=\"roundup-offer-link\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"\" data-ga-click=\"\">Tinder<\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n                                             \u2014<br \/>\n                    <strong>top pick for finding hookups<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-base font-sans !leading-5 md:!leading-none mt-4\">\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/cc.mashable.com\/v1\/otc\/03bCs1jQxEftXGkZ7A6Km1e?merchant=07mPN5vpLDMQbGwckjsU885&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.money.com%2Fpr%2Fvdf634353f62&amp;template=article&amp;module=offer-group&amp;element=offer-group&amp;item=offer-title&amp;position=3&amp;element_label=Hinge&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle-route-prefix%2Flife%2Fofcom-age-verification-law-report-update&amp;group_uuid=06PfgJzmas37I1KxqZcmq3N&amp;product_uuid=07wpyCYVWeKD1xbKGgyV5pM&amp;object_type=article&amp;object_uuid=07yitjlkmFLL939azlm712g\" data-commerce=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"sponsored\" data-parent-group=\"affiliate-link\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-element=\"offer-group\" data-ga-action=\"offer-title\" data-ga-item=\"offer-title\" data-ga-label=\"Hinge\" data-ga-position=\"3\" data-ga-module=\"offer-group\" style=\";\" class=\"roundup-offer-link\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"\" data-ga-click=\"\">Hinge<\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n                                             \u2014<br \/>\n                    <strong>popular choice for regular meetups<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>\n                    Products available for purchase through affiliate links. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.\n                <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"flex mx-auto mt-8 w-full max-w-3xl font-sans text-lg leading-normal md:text-xl md:leading-7\">\n        <span class=\"font-bold text-primary-400\">SEE ALSO:<\/span><br \/>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/life\/eu-plans-to-restrict-social-media-for-kids-under-13\" class=\"flex items-center text-secondary-300\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"ml-1\">EU plans to restrict social media for kids under 13<\/span><br \/>\n            <svg class=\"ml-1 w-4 h-4 font-normal fill-current\"><use href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/images\/icons\/spritemap.svg#sprite-arrow-right-thin\"\/><\/svg><br \/>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>According to Ofcom&#8217;s Children&#8217;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, 87 percent, of these porn site visits were for under 30 seconds, and 65 percent were for less than 10 seconds.<\/p>\n<h2>Shortcomings of the Online Safety Act<\/h2>\n<p>Ofcom also found that all of the UK&#8217;s top 10 porn sites, and 64 out of the top 100 most popular porn sites in the country, have installed age assurance as of last month, and 10 have geo-blocked UK users. Despite this, though, Ofcom stated that &#8220;too many porn sites still\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have age checks in place.&#8221; It&#8217;s opened 23 investigations into providers of 88 adult services.<\/p>\n<section x-data=\"window.newsletter({ isDeal: false })\" x-init=\"init()\" aria-label=\"Newsletter Sign-Up\" class=\"relative invisible my-12 mx-auto w-full max-w-3xl md:my-16 ziff-component accent-cut-for-gradient-bg accent-cut-border-for-gradient-bg bg-gradient-fuchsia-secondary p-[2px]\">\n<p>\n            <span class=\"text-gradient-fuchsia-secondary\">Mashable Trend Report<\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Another result of the report is that children are finding porn sites without age checks via search. A third (33 percent) of Google Search results on the first page were porn sites without age checks or geo-blocking, while this was the case for 54 percent of first-page Bing results.<\/p>\n<p>Ofcom stated that Google and Bing are working with it &#8220;to\u00a0tackle\u00a0the\u00a0discoverability\u00a0of porn\u00a0sites without age checks\u00a0via their services,&#8221; though the Online Safety Act doesn&#8217;t require search providers to use age assurance to prevent minors from viewing porn.<\/p>\n<p>The report also stated that over 10 percent of 15 to 17-year-olds accessed three popular dating apps in Dec. 2025, despite age checks, so these services need to ensure their age checks are effective. <\/p>\n<p>Finally, the report also casts doubt on age-inference methods, which estimate a user&#8217;s age from their behavior. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our message to\u00a0social media companies\u00a0is clear:\u00a0those\u00a0which use age inference models\u00a0to\u00a0comply with\u00a0their child protection duties\u00a0should\u00a0switch to other methods listed\u00a0in our guidance\u00a0as highly effective without delay,&#8221; Ofcom stated in a press release shared with Mashable.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This will become increasingly relevant as the <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/tech\/uk-social-media-ban-under-16\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">UK bans social media<\/a> for children under 16. The UK government is planning to use similar age-assurance methods as the Online Safety Act. A <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/tech\/australia-social-media-ban-ineffective-study-suggests\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">recent study<\/a> on Australia&#8217;s social media ban found it ineffective, partly because age estimations don&#8217;t require younger users to undergo additional checks. <\/p>\n<p>Ofcom states it will deliver an assessment of what &#8220;highly effective age checks&#8221; will look like to determine someone is over 16 to Parliament by the end of Oct. It will also publish a report on <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/pornhub-access-restored-uk\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">app-store-level age verification<\/a> by Jan. 2027.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the broad social media ban for under-16s, the UK also just announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/life\/uk-social-media-curfew-teens-16-17\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">social media curfew<\/a> for teenagers aged 16 and 17. <\/p>\n<section class=\"mx-auto max-w-7xl\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Close to a year after the enactment of the UK&#8217;s age assurance law, the Online Safety Act, Ofcom, the UK&#8217;s communications regulator, has released a report on its progress. The Online Safety Act requires robust age checks for sites that have content &#8220;restricted to adults,&#8221; which extends from pornography to non-explicit content like the r\/stopsmoking&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/helios-i.mashable.com\/imagery\/articles\/07yitjlkmFLL939azlm712g\/hero-image.fill.size_1200x675.v1784129313.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}