United Kingdom: Office of Communications' released guidance letter on deadline for mandatory age assurance on services that allow pornography

On 24 April 2025, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) published a compliance letter outlining the deadline for mandatory age assurance on services that allow pornography. Under the Online Safety Act 2023, services regulated under Part 3 must implement highly effective age assurance measures to prevent under-18s from accessing pornographic content by 25 July 2025. This requirement applies to all services used by UK-based users, regardless of where they are based. Failure to comply may result in enforcement action, including fines of up to 10% of a service's qualifying worldwide turnover or GBP 18 million, whichever is greater. In addition, services must complete a child access assessment by 16 April 2025 and a child risk assessment, if applicable, by 24 July 2025 for any parts of the service that are not age restricted.