UK watchdog fines another porn site £800,000 – and 4chan is next in the crosshairs
UK communications regulator Ofcom has fined Kick Online Entertainment SA £800,000 for not putting in place proper age verification.
Kick Online Entertainment SA is the operator of the pornography website motherless.com, and was selected for investigation based on its user numbers.
Ofcom found that from 25 July until 29 December 2025, the website failed to comply with its age check requirements, and it has since implemented sufficiently effective age assurance.
In addition to the fine of £800,000 for contravening the new age check requirements introduced in the Online Safety Act, Kick Online Entertainment SA was fined a further £30,000 for failing to respond in a timely manner to requests from the regulator.
The Online Safety Act was introduced earlier this year and requires that websites hosting pornographic material and other restricted adult content implement robust age verification checks to prevent children from readily accessing their content.
While websites serving adult content could previously use simple checkboxes or buttons to confirm a visitor was over 18, the new rules imposed by the Online Safety Act require more robust checks, including facial age estimation and credit card data.
The levying of a fine on Kick Online Entertainment SA is the latest instance of Ofcom taking action against porn site operators for non-compliance.
In December last year, the regulator fined AVS Group Ltd, the operator of several pornography sites in the UK, a total of £1 million for not complying with the age verification rules of the Online Safety Act.
“Having highly effective age checks on adult sites to protect children from pornographic content is non-negotiable,” said Director of Enforcement at Ofcom Suzanne Cater.
“Any company that fails to meet this duty – or engage with us – can expect to face robust enforcement action, including significant fines.”
“We continue to investigate other sites under the UK’s age check rules and will take further action where necessary,” she said.
4chan in the crosshairs
Ofcom is also investigating several other websites for failing to implement robust age checks as required by the new legislation.
On Thursday 12 February, the regulator issued provisional decisions that Youngtek Solutions, Im.ge, and 4chan have failed to comply with the Online Safety Act.
4chan is an online discussion board where visitors converse anonymously across a range of topics. The website is highly controversial and notorious for toxic discussion and behaviour, and it is rife with explicit content.
Ofcom said in its provisional contravention notice that 4chan has failed to prevent children from encountering pornographic content through highly effective age assurance, and that it has failed to respond to statutory information requests.
Now that the provisional contravention notice has been issued to 4chan and others, these websites will have 10 working days to make their representations to Ofcom, after which the watchdog will make its final decision.
It is possible that beyond levying fines on websites in contravention of the Online Safety Act, Ofcom could require that an offending website be blocked in the UK entirely.
This would mean that UK visitors would no longer be able to visit 4chan or other websites found to have sufficiently contravened the Online Safety Act.
