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Ofcom has launched investigations into two pornographic sites it believes may be falling foul of the UK’s newly introduced child safety rules.<\/p>\n
The regulator said two companies – including one running a so-called “nudifying” service – had failed to detail how they were preventing children from accessing their platforms.<\/p>\n
Ofcom announced in January<\/a> that, in order to comply with the Online Safety Act, all websites on which pornographic material could be found had to introduce “robust” age-checking techniques by July.<\/p>\n It said the two services it was investigating did not appear to have any effective means of checking the age of users.<\/p>\n Firms found to be in breach of the Act face huge fines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The regulator said on Friday that many services had, as required, provided details of “highly effective age assurance methods” they were planning to implement.<\/p>\n They added that this “reassuringly” included some of the largest services that fall under the rules.<\/p>\n It said a small number of services had also blocked UK users entirely to prevent children accessing them, it said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The two companies it is investigating did not respond to its request for information or show they had plans to introduce age checks.<\/p>\n The “nudifying” technology one of them features involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create the impression of having removed a person’s clothing in an image or video.<\/p>\n The Children’s Commissioner recently called on the government to introduce a total ban on such AI apps that could be used to create sexually explicit images of children<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All websites where a user might encounter pornographic material are required to demonstrate the robustness of the measures they are taking to verify the age of users.<\/p>\n These could include requiring UK users to provide photo ID or running credit card checks.<\/p>\n These could even apply to some social media platforms, Ofcom told the BBC in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n The rules are expected to change the way many UK adults will use or encounter some digital services, such as porn sites.<\/p>\n “As age checks start to roll out in the coming months, adults will start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services,” said Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, in January.<\/p>\n In April, Discord said it would start testing face-scanning as a way to verify some users’ ages in the UK and Australia<\/a>. <\/p>\n Experts said it marked “the start of a bigger shift” for platforms as lawmakers worldwide look to impose strict internet safety rules.<\/p>\n Critics suggest such measures risk pushing young people to “darker corners” of the internet where there are smaller, less regulated sites hosting more violent or explicit material.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n