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After continued backlash over countries blocking access to pornography websites across the World Wide Web, one company has been fined $1 million for not adhering to the new process. Although authorities were warned that adult entertainment sites would have to comply with new age verification rules or face hefty fines, it seems this fell on the deaf ears of some.
2025 saw the pornography industry turned on its head. Alongside the USA officially banning Pornhub in over a third of its states, countries including France and Italy threatened their own bans, while the United Kingdom faced some of the biggest upheaval.
The Online Safety Act 2023 demanded third-party verification, leading to Pornhub cutting off access to new users and claiming that its user numbers have been falling dramatically.
Those behind parent company Aylo maintained that these restrictions would hit compliant sites hard while funnelling people to unverified corners of the internet. Still, December 2025 statistics from Semrush claim Pornhub is the eighth-most visited website in the world – coming ahead of X, Amazon, and the web version of TikTok.
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Coming down hard on those who've refused to comply or have failed to install the right restrictions, the BBC reports that the UK's Ofcom (Office of Communications) has slapped Kick Online Entertainment SA with an £800,000/$1 million fine.
Ofcom maintains that Kick Online Entertainment SA didn't have 'sufficient' age checks in place. While they're now part of the site, it's said that it wasn't complying between July and December 2025
In a statement, Suzanne Cater, Director of Enforcement at Ofcom, reiterated that it's 'non-negotiable' for sites showing adult materials to have checks in place: "Any company that fails to meet this duty - or engage with us - can expect to face robust enforcement action, including significant fines."
Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom can fine UK sites up to 10% of their turnover or even apply for a court order for them to be blocked in the country.
Kick Online Entertainment SA has also been fined £30,000/$41,000 for failing to respond to information requests. It will reportedly face a $270 daily penalty until it responds.
An investigation began on July 31, with Ofcom finding that 34 sites hadn't introduced the required checks. Kick Online Entertainment was prioritized due to the number of users it has.
Elsewhere, message board 4chan similarly facing a £520,000/$700,000 fine for failure to comply with the law in the UK. A laywer spoeaking for 4chan said it won't be paying the fine.
Saying that 4chan has already refused to pay a $27,000 fine from last year, lawyer Preston Byrne clarified: "My client has broken no law in the only jurisdiction that matters here - the United States."
In December 2025, Ofcom issued its largest fine when it charged AVS Group Ltd a sizeable $1.3 million for "continued non-compliance with the Online Safety Act."
Carter vows that Ofcom will carry on investigating sites that fail to implement these age checks, although Byrne has a warning as he concluded: "America will not tolerate Ofcom's behaviour for much longer...Every time they send one of their unenforceable enforcement notices into our country, it adds fuel and urgency to law reform efforts here in the United States."
An Ofcom spokesperson told the outlet that "in any industry, companies that want to provide a service to people in the UK must comply with UK laws," adding, "The UK's Online Safety Act is concerned with protecting people in the UK," and saying the Act does mandate that a platform has to restrict content in other countries.
