Ofcom, the UK’s online safety regulator, published a statutory report on 16 July 2026 that gives the clearest picture yet of how age verification is actually working on adult sites nearly a year into the Online Safety Act’s enforcement era. The headline number: the share of children who ran into a “highly effective” age check while trying to access pornography rose from roughly 25% to 43% between July 2025 and January 2026, alongside a 23-fold jump in the total number of age checks completed. For anyone running or building a business on a platform like OnlyFans, the report is worth reading past the headline.
The numbers Ofcom is pointing to
- Platforms completed more than 69 million age checks in the second half of 2025 — a 23-fold increase on the period before.
- All of the UK’s ten most-visited pornography sites, and a majority of the top 100, now have age checks in place.
- Among children who did attempt to reach pornographic content, roughly half were stopped by a working age check.
- Ofcom has opened 23 investigations covering 88 adult service providers, and has already fined at least one operator over inadequate age assurance.
Where the gaps still are
Ofcom was explicit that the job isn’t done. Some adult services still operate with no checks at all, and the regulator flagged that search engines keep directing users toward non-compliant sites — meaning compliant platforms are competing, in search visibility terms, against sites that haven’t bothered to comply. The regulator also poured cold water on using simple “age inference” (estimating age from behaviour or account signals) as a substitute for verification, warning it’s unlikely to be robust enough to support broader restrictions Parliament has floated, such as a social media age limit. A fuller assessment of what verification standards actually work is due to Parliament by October 2026.
What it means if you’re a UK-based creator
Age verification tends to get discussed as a subscriber-side or platform-side issue, but it affects creators directly in a few practical ways:
- Your platform’s compliance is your business continuity. Ofcom’s escalation ladder for non-compliant sites includes fines, but also “business disruption measures” — payment processor withdrawal and even ISP blocking. A platform that falls foul of this doesn’t just get fined; its creators can lose access to their income overnight.
- You’re likely already doing your own age/ID verification. Most UK creator platforms verify a creator’s own age and identity at sign-up, independent of Ofcom’s rules about verifying visitors. Keeping that documentation current isn’t optional busywork — it’s what keeps your account in good standing.
- Expect more friction, not less, over the next year. With Ofcom explicitly planning further enforcement and a Parliamentary report due in October, platforms are likely to keep tightening checks rather than relax them.
This UK-specific push runs in parallel with the EU’s own timeline requiring age verification live across every member state by the end of 2026, and with separate moves in the US Senate, including the SCREEN Act. Whichever market you earn from, the direction of travel is the same: verification is becoming a baseline cost of doing business, not an optional extra.
It’s also a reminder of why platform choice and diversification matter. UK creators who followed recent reporting on management agency practices already know that regulatory pressure and business risk in this industry rarely arrive in isolation.
This article summarises a regulatory report and public policy developments. It is not legal advice; if you have specific compliance questions about your own account or business, consult a qualified solicitor.
