December 4, 2025
Ofcom left on read
Porn company fined £1M over inadequate age checks (UK)
UK slaps £1M fine, site ghosts regulator — internet rolls its eyes
TLDR: UK regulator Ofcom fined a porn publisher £1M for weak age checks, but the company hasn’t responded and users say it won’t matter if it’s outside UK reach. Comments mock the fine as pocket change, debate ID checks and VPN workarounds, and call for real business disruption over PR moves.
Ofcom just blasted a Belize-registered porn publisher, AVS Group Ltd, with a £1M fine (plus £50k for ignoring emails), demanding “highly effective” age checks in 72 hours or face £1,000 a day. But the community’s verdict? “Left on read.” One top comment sneers that if the company isn’t actually in the UK, they can just ignore it. Another calls £1M “lunch money,” while skeptics say this is political theatre—techies claim truly locking kids out is near-impossible and Ofcom knows it. The BBC didn’t name any AVS sites, which sparked side-eye and jokes about “mystery platforms.”
There’s bigger drama brewing: Ofcom says a “major social media company” is on the naughty step for safety compliance, they’ve fined deepfake “nudify” apps, and 4chan is basically refusing to play ball. Meanwhile, Pornhub’s parent reported a 77% drop in UK visitors, and commenters are split between cheering kid safety and fearing ID checks with adult sites. The VPN chatter pops up (“you can reroute traffic to dodge checks”), but the mood is more meme than manual: Ofcom ghosted, the internet toasted. One wag even joked it’s “great news for self-employed prostitutes,” implying a boom for offline alternatives. Activists like Baroness Kidron say fines are “nothing” and want business disruption, not press releases—commenters loudly agree.
Key Points
- •Ofcom fined AVS Group Ltd £1m for failing to implement highly effective age assurance, plus £50,000 for non-response.
- •AVS has 72 hours to comply or face an additional £1,000 per day in penalties.
- •Ofcom is overseeing compliance remediation for an unnamed major social media platform and may take formal action.
- •Ofcom has fined entities lacking age verification, including deepfake “nudify” apps; 4Chan refused a £20,000 fine.
- •Pornhub’s parent reported a 77% drop in UK visitors after stricter age checks were introduced in July.