LONDON — U.K. communications regulator Ofcom released on Thursday its finalized official guidance on what constitutes “highly effective” age assurance, which adult sites are required to implement under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA).
Ofcom’s plans for implementing the OSA’s provisions have been rolled out in phases. This latest announcement notes that:
- Services that publish their own pornographic content — such as studios and pay sites — must introduce age checks immediately.
- Services that allow user-generated pornographic content — such as social media, tube sites, cam sites and fan platforms — must introduce age checks no later than July.
- An enforcement program will be monitoring industry compliance.
The statement also clarifies that for the purposes of OSA compliance, “highly effective” age assurance means age-checking methods that are “technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair.”
The guidance then provides what it terms “a non-exhaustive list” of methods it considers “capable of being highly effective.” That list includes “open banking, photo ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile network operator age checks, credit card checks, digital identity services and email-based age estimation.”
It further notes, “While we have decided not to introduce numerical thresholds for highly effective age assurance at this stage (e.g. 99% accuracy), we acknowledge that numerical thresholds may complement our four criteria in the future, pending further developments in testing methodologies, industry standards, and independent research.”
The guidance specifies that “methods including self-declaration of age and online payments which don’t require a person to be 18 are not highly effective.”
“Our approach is designed to be flexible, tech-neutral and future-proof,” reads the statement by Ofcom Chief Executive Melanie Dawes. “While providing strong protections to children, our approach also takes care to ensure that privacy rights are protected and that adults can still access legal pornography.”
While the statement notes “expectations” that sites and apps will respect privacy rights, it does not provide guidelines for privacy protection.
Tim Henning, Executive Director of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP), said in a statement, “ASACP believes that all apps, platforms and sites that allow, enable or feature adult-oriented content should comply with the U.K. mandate, regardless of their location or primary market. Doing so not only helps to protect children, but it’s good business too!”
Ofcom announced that it is opening an age assurance enforcement program, focusing first on services that display or publish their own pornographic content.
“We will contact a range of adult services — large and small — to advise them of their new obligations,” the statement explains. “We will not hesitate to take action and launch investigations against services that do not engage or ultimately comply.
“For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services,” the statement continues. “Either they don’t ask or, when they do, the checks are minimal and easy to avoid. That means companies have effectively been treating all users as if they’re adults, leaving children potentially exposed to porn and other types of harmful content. Today, this starts to change.”