LOS ANGELES — A Pornhub spokesperson on Monday told XBIZ that a recent report claiming the site will use a “loophole” to sidestep age verification requirements under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act is “misleading.”
The politically conservative U.K. newspaper The Telegraph last week published a sensationalistic report claiming that Pornhub “has said that it would not be covered” by age verification requirements under the OSA, on the grounds that the site does not qualify as a “provider of pornographic content” under OSA rules as they are being implemented by U.K. media regulator Ofcom.
“The world’s biggest porn website will be able to avoid imminent age checks across its adult websites,” the Telegraph article reads.
The story has since been picked up by other news outlets.
In fact, classification under Part 3 rather than Part 5 of the OSA does not constitute avoidance of provider obligations. A quote from Ofcom in the same article even included Pornhub by name in clarifying that “the ‘Part 5’ duties for pornography providers due to come into force in January largely covered premium pay sites and that the majority of online pornography services accessed in Britain, such as Pornhub, would be covered by later rules covering child safety.”
On Friday, Ofcom posted information clarifying what kinds of services are required to comply with each section of the OSA, and when.
“Platforms that publish their own pornographic content (Part 5 services) must take immediate steps to start introducing highly effective age assurance measures, in line with our guidance,” the update reads. “Sites that allow user-generated pornographic content (Part 3 services) must carry out assessments to confirm whether under-18s are able to access content on their platforms.”
The Ofcom statement adds that by July 2025, all platforms must have “a highly effective age assurance solution in place to protect under-18s. This is the case whether a service publishes its own pornographic content or allows user-generated pornographic content.”
As XBIZ reported, age verification is listed among the U.K. government’s priorities for its implementation of the OSA.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
