OnlyFans slapped with £1M UK fine

London: The United Kingdom’s communications regulator has fined OnlyFans £1.05 million for failing to provide accurate information about its age assurance measures.

The fine stems from an investigation launched in 2024 into whether the platform, known for hosting adult content, failed to block under-18s from viewing restricted material under U.K. rules regulating video-sharing platforms, which predate the Online Safety Act.

Ofcom closed that part of the investigation last month, as well as a related investigation into whether OnlyFans’ parent company, Fenix, failed to cooperate with the regulator, saying it was “making no findings on these issues” and would “continue to engage” with the service on its age-gating measures.

However, Ofcom continued to look at whether Fenix failed to provide accurate responses to statutory information requests about the implementation and effectiveness of its age assurance measures between June 2022 and June 2023.

In 2023, OnlyFans told the regulator it set a Yoti-supplied age-estimation tool to flag under-23s, but later discovered that the tool’s threshold had mistakenly been set to spot under-20s.

Fenix informed Ofcom about the error in January 2024, two weeks after it discovered the issue and more than 16 months after the initial information request, Ofcom said.

“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,” Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s enforcement director, said.

“We will hold platforms to high standards and will not hesitate to take enforcement action where we find failings.”

However, the regulator said it had reduced the fine because Fenix accepted its findings and settled the case.

OnlyFans now sets the “challenge age ” to 21-years-old, which the company has previously argued is sufficient to meet statutory obligations.

“OnlyFans recognizes the importance of providing Ofcom with accurate and timely information,” an OnlyFans spokesperson said. “We welcome the conclusion of this process and Ofcom’s previous decision to close their investigation into our age assurance measures.”