Ofcom fines OnlyFans £1m over inaccurate information on age checks

Ofcom has fined OnlyFans’ parent company £1.05m after it failed to provide accurate information on its age verification measures.

Fenix International, owner of the platform, gave Ofcom erroneous information on the ‘challenge age’ for its age verification tool.

The subscription platform, which is known for providing sexually explicit content, has a minimum age of 18 for users. To verify a potential user’s age, it uses a facial age estimation tool. The tool requires users to upload a selfie to estimate their age. If its estimate is below the challenge age, it then requires the person to prove their age via a secondary method.

Across 2022-2023, Ofcom asked Fenix twice for information on Onyfans’ age assurance checks, including the effectiveness of its third-party facial estimation technology. The request was part of the regulator’s review on how video-sharing platforms were keeping children safe online.

In its submission Fenix stated the technology had a challenge age of 23. But on 4 January 2024, Fenix learned from its technology provider that the challenge had been set at 20 years old since November 2021.

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The company took more than two weeks to notify Ofcom of its mistake, sparking an investigation by the regulator in May into why Fenix had failed to comply with its duty to provide accurate data.

Ofcom expects “robust checks” to be in place to ensure information is properly reviewed before being submitted to a formal information request.

The investigation concluded Fenix’s inadequate fact checking processes were to blame for the 16-month delay to realise data provided to Ofcom was inaccurate, so it imposed a fine.

The final fine was cut by 30 per cent after Fenix accepted the investigation’s conclusion.

Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s enforcement director, said: “When we use our statutory powers to request information from platforms, they are required, by law, to ensure it is complete, accurate and delivered to us on time.

“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 fine comes amid Ofcom’s phased implementation of the Online Safety Act, and months after it published new industry guidance on age checks to prevent children from accessing pornographic content.

Last year, the regulator also fined TikTok after it provided inaccurate information. The social media platform had to pay £1.8m after it provided Ofcom with inaccurate data on its parental controls.