Online Safety Act: Ofcom investigating 34 sites for breaching new internet rules
Ofcom is investigating 34 websites for not complying with the Online Safety Act
- The Online Safety Act came into force last Friday (July 25).
- New age-check requirements have been introduced.
- Ofcom has announced investigations into 34 websites for non-compliance.
It has only been a week but Ofcom is already launching an investigation into 34 websites for breaching the new Online Safety Act rules.
The regulator has confirmed that it is looking into four companies for non-compliance of age-check requirements on pornography sites. Under the rules, UK internet-users have to prove they are 18 or older to access adult material.
Ofcom has announced it has “opened formal investigations” into the the owners of 34 adult websites. It says that since the rules came into force last week it has been “checking compliance” as part of its duties enforcing the OSA.
The companies under investigation are: 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd. Collectively they operate 34 pornography websites.
In a statement, Ofcom said: “These companies have been prioritised based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operate and their user numbers. Collectively, these websites have over 9 million unique monthly UK visitors.”
The regulator adds: “We will now gather and analyse evidence to determine whether any contraventions have occurred.
“If our assessment indicates compliance failures, we will issue provisional notices of contravention to providers, who can then make representations on our findings, before we make our final decisions. We will provide updates on these investigations as soon as possible.”
These new cases add to Ofcom’s 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, an online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, First Time Videos LLC and Itai Tech Ltd. Ofcom expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming weeks and months, it has said.
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