Ofcom has issued its first major penalty under the Online Safety Act, and it’s aimed squarely at AVS Group Ltd, a little-known adult website network registered to a virtual mailbox in Belize.
The regulator fined the firm £1m on Thursday for failing to introduce mandatory age checks across its 18 adult sites, then added another £50,000 after the company failed to respond to official notices.
This is Ofcom’s attempt to show the new law has teeth from day one.
Rather than waiting for a showdown with a Silicon Valley heavyweight, the regulator has targeted a company broadcasting into the UK, ignoring statutory demands and offering no functioning age-verification system.
A simple case, used to send a wider signal
AVS now has 72 hours to implement “highly effective” age checks, or face an escalating bill of £1,300 for every day it fails to comply.
Continued non-engagement gives Ofcom the option to apply for court orders, cut off the company’s payment providers or, at the extreme end, force UK internet providers to block the sites entirely.
After months of pushback over censorship risks, patchy compliance, VPN workarounds and platforms hastily age-gating harmless content, Ofcom wants to demonstrate the Act isn’t a paper exercise.
Oliver Griffiths, its online safety chief, said the action shows “the tide is turning”, a message aimed as much at major platforms as at obscure offshore operators.
But the broader landscape is already proving to be a little more complicated.
One unnamed global social media platform is in formal remediation with Ofcom. Deepfake “nudify” apps have been fined. 4Chan has refused to pay its £20,000 penalty and is challenging the regulator in court. Wikipedia has warned the Act could undermine its volunteer-driven model.
Even ministers have complained about the pace, slamming the Bill as “not up to scratch”, with full enforcement not expected until 2026.
But the workload is no small feat, with thousands of mid-tier platforms, adult sites, overseas forums and semi-anonymous apps now falling within scope.
Many have no UK presence, little legal expertise, or, like AVS, no interest in answering compliance emails.
Meanwhile, age-verification itself is under scrutiny.
Searches for “how to get around age verification” surged by over 450,000 per cent after the Act passed, and Pornhub reports a 77 per cent drop in UK traffic since implementing checks.
A growing market of ID-verification firms, including Yoti, whose revenues are up 55 per cent, has sprung up to meet the demand.
Privacy campaigners, however, warn that centralised stores of passports, selfies and facial scans create new risks in the process.
By picking a straightforward non-complier, Ofcom is setting a benchmark. Whether the move works in alerting the industry of the Bill’s enforcement, is to be seen.