OnlyFans investigated by UK’s media regulator over kids accessing porn

LONDON — UK’s media regulator Ofcom on Wednesday said that it has opened an investigation into whether OnlyFans, a subscription-based adult content creation platform, is doing enough to prevent children from accessing pornography on its site.

The regulator suspects that the platform is not doing enough to prevent those under the age of 18 from accessing that material.

“Under existing regulations that pre-date the UK’s new Online Safety Act, video-sharing platforms (VSPs) established in the UK are required to take appropriate measures to prevent under-18s from accessing pornographic material,” Ofcom said.

In response to this VSP regulation, several UK-based sites that host adult content, including OnlyFans — have introduced age verification measures.

After reviewing the submissions received from OnlyFans in response to formal information requests, Ofcom said that they have grounds to suspect the platform did not implement its age verification measures in such a way as to protect under-18s from pornographic material sufficiently.

“We are also investigating whether OnlyFans failed to comply with its duties to provide complete and accurate information in response to these statutory requests,” it added.

Last year, OnlyFans reported that users spent $5.55 billion in total in the fiscal year ended November 30, 2022, up 16 per cent from the previous year, with creators pocketing nearly $4.5 billion of that.