Ofcom, the UK regulator, is investigating the online adult material subscription service OnlyFans for not doing enough to stop children from using the site to obtain pornography.
The primary regulating organization for the broadcasting, telecommunications, and postal sectors in the United Kingdom, Ofcom, claims it has reason to believe that OnlyFans’ parent firm, Fenix International Limited, did not adequately put age-verification procedures in place.
In addition, the regulator is looking into the possibility that Fenix supplied false or incomplete information in response to two Ofcom information request notifications, one from June 2022 and the second from June 2023. These requests served to guide an Ofcom investigation into the ways in which video-sharing services (VSPs) like OnlyFans shielded kids from content that was off-limits. 
The available data suggests that OnlyFans may have failed to provide accurate and comprehensive information in response to the two warnings, and its age assurance procedures may not have adequately protected underage viewers from banned content.
A spokesman for OnlyFans explained that the firm utilizes Yoti, a government-approved age-assurance supplier that employs face scans to estimate age, in addition to asking all fans to supply their name and credit card information. The business explained that a “coding configuration issue” in its report misrepresented that it had set a 23-year-old age limit in Yoti, when in reality it had set it to 20. The spokesman made it clear, however, that the cutoff was always higher than the legally mandated age of eighteen.
“Only fans discovered the reporting error and proactively amended our report to Ofcom,” the spokesman told Eltrys. “As the leading regulated and based social media platform in the United Kingdom, OnlyFans works closely with Ofcom to establish and refine best practices for online safety, including the use of age-assurance technology.”
Regulations
The U.K. recently rolled out new regulations under the Online Safety Act designed to govern online speech and media, but these rules won’t start coming into force until later this year. Ofcom states that it is conducting its investigation in accordance with the Communications Act 2003, which underwent amendments in 2020 and mandates VSPs based in the U.K. must take “appropriate measures to prevent under-18s from accessing pornographic material.”
Since 2020, Ofcom has been the United Kingdom’s official VSP regulator.
It’s worth noting that Ofcom’s investigation relates only to the U.K. The investigation focuses on “fans” who access the OnlyFans platform, not the content creators themselves, who are already required to provide identification as part of their onboarding process.
