United KingdomOnline Safety Act 2023, Part 5 (duties of providers of regulated provider pornographic content)
Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, ss. 79-82 (Part 5)
In force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to you if you publish or display your own pornographic content (not user-generated content) and have a UK user base or target the UK market.
- Use age verification, age estimation or both to ensure children cannot normally encounter that content; the method must be highly effective at correctly determining whether a user is a child.
- Keep written records of the age verification or age estimation method you use, and publish a public statement on the methods used.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Ofcom Guidance on Highly Effective Age Assurance and Other Part 5 Duties (guidance from Ofcom, issued ).
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalties
Fines up to the greater of GBP 18,000,000 or 10 percent of qualifying worldwide revenue, plus daily penalties for continuing non-compliance and potential business disruption measures.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Ofcom
Litigation
- Matter
- Ofcom investigation into Itai Tech Ltd (Undress.cc nudification site)
- Posture
- Ofcom found the provider failed to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children encountering pornographic content and imposed a GBP 50,000 fine, plus a GBP 5,000 fine for failing to respond to a statutory information request, decision published .
- Source link
- https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/ofcom-fines-nudification-site-50000-for-failing-to-introduce-age-checks
Settledness
Section 82 requires Ofcom to produce and publish guidance to assist providers with the duties in section 81.
- As of
- Open questions
- Does pornographic content posted by a creator whom the provider pays or contracts count as published or displayed by "a person acting on behalf of the provider" under section 79(2) of the Online Safety Act 2023, or as user-generated content that section 79(7) excludes from provider pornographic content?
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Internet services that publish or display their own pornographic content (not user-generated), with a UK user base or that target the UK market.
How the hook was established
express
What makes it apply
User location, Market targeting
Verification methods
Gov ID, Facial estimation, Digital ID, Third party service, Transactional data
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Public
Logging duty
Section 81(4) requires a provider of regulated provider pornographic content to make and keep a written record of the kinds of age verification or age estimation it uses and how it uses them, and of how it had regard to protecting UK users' privacy when choosing them; section 81(5) requires a publicly available statement summarising that record. The record describes the method, not each user's check, and the section sets no retention period and no deletion rule for age data. Ofcom's information and enforcement powers sit in other Parts of the Act that this row does not cite.
- Kind
- Explicit
- As of
- Provision
- Online Safety Act 2023, s. 81(4) and (5)
- Trigger
- age_assurance
What this law does
Requires providers that publish or display their own, non-user-generated pornographic content to ensure, using age verification or age estimation or both, that children cannot normally encounter that content. The method used must be highly effective at correctly determining whether a user is a child, and providers must keep written records and publish a public statement on the methods used. The duty in section 81 came into force on .
Guidance on this law
How the bodies that enforce this law read it. Guidance binds nobody by itself, so LexLint never raises a finding from it; the duty is this law's.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .