United Kingdom: Opened public consultation on Ofcom guidance for service providers publishing pornographic content

On 5 December 2023, Ofcom (Office of Communications of United Kingdom) opened a public consultation on preliminary guidance designed to support online service providers that host or showcase regulated adult content until 5 March 2024. Presently, online platforms featuring explicit content lack effective measures to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material. Most platforms allow access without adequate age verification, relying on minimal checks where users simply confirm that they are over 18. The Online Safety Act requires service providers to implement effective age verification measures to accurately identify and prevent minors from encountering pornographic content online. The guidance includes a list of age assurances for correctly determining if the user is a child or not, as well as criteria regarding technical robustness, reliability, accuracy, and fairness of the system used to determine the age. Furthermore, the guidance outlines the measures that should be followed to ensure compliance with principles of accessibility and interoperability, recordkeeping obligations and Ofcom’s approach to assessing compliance.