UK Watchdog Fines OnlyFans £1M UK Over Age-Check Policies

The UK’s media and telecom watchdog, Ofcom, has fined OnlyFans £1.05 million (about $1.4 million USD). The penalty comes after the platform failed to provide accurate information about its age verification procedures, as stated in a March 27 release.

On the platform, users pay creators directly for content based on different payment plans. Though OnlyFans allows all kinds of content, the platform is known primarily for hosting and distributing pornographic material, and it officially requires users to be at least 18 years of age.

As part of its verification process, users must submit a selfie that is scanned by third-party facial recognition technology. According to Fenix, OnlyFans’ parent company, the system flags anyone suspected to be under 23 and requires them to submit an additional form of ID.

However, after a nine-month investigation by Ofcom, the regulator discovered that the age-check threshold had been set to 20 years old since at least November 2021.

“Our investigation raised a number of concerns, including that it took the company over 16 months to discover that it had provided Ofcom with inaccurate information. We believe robust fact checking processes would have resulted in the incorrect submission coming to light sooner,” the regulator said.

Though the official probe into underage access to the platform closed in February, the watchdog fined Fenix for failing to provide “accurate and complete information to Ofcom in response to two statutory information requests.” This constitutes a breach of the UK’s information laws.

Suzane Carter, Ofcom’s Enforcement Director, stated: “Receiving accurate and complete information is fundamental for Ofcom to do its job as a regulator and to understand and monitor how platforms are operating. We will hold platforms to high standards and will not hesitate to take enforcement action where we find failings.”

The watchdog also stated that it reduced the fine because of Fenix’s willingness to comply with the investigation and penalty.

Robust age-verification measures on the platform are of special interest considering its rapid growth in popularity. A recent Credit Karma survey found that nearly half of Gen Z members earn extra income through online jobs like content creation, explicitly mentioning OnlyFans as a popular outlet.