Ofcom has today fined 4chan £450,000 for not checking ages to prevent children from viewing pornography on its site.
The UK online safety watchdog has fined the company £50,000 for not assessing the risk of illegal content appearing on its platform, and £20,000 for not setting out in its terms of service how it protects people from criminal content.
Age checking helps prevent children from watching porn
Last year, the Children’s Commissioner found that 59% of children had accidentally encountered pornography without looking for it. Since then, regulations under the UK’s Online Protection Act have come into force, meaning that sites hosting pornographic content must use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from easily accessing that content.
Like other industries, companies providing online services to people in the UK must comply with UK laws. The Online Safety Act deals with the protection of people in the UK. Platforms are not required to restrict what people in other countries can watch.[1]
Data shows that almost 80% of the UK’s top 100 pornography sites now have age checks. This means that, on average, every day, more than 7 million visitors from the UK are accessing age-restricted pornography services.
4chan fined for failing to protect children
Following an investigation, we have fined 4chan £450,000 for failing to comply with UK online age verification requirements. Platforms now have until April 2 to implement highly effective age assurance or face a daily fine of £500.
We also fined 4chan £50,000 for failing to assess the risk of people in the UK encountering illegal content on its site. This is fundamental to keeping users safe – to take appropriate safeguards to protect people, especially children, providers must first understand how harm can occur on their platforms.
The company now must carry out a suitable and adequate illicit content risk assessment by 2 April or face a daily fine of £200.
Additionally, we have fined 4chan £20,000 for failing to specify in its terms of service how to protect individuals from illegal content, which it now must do by April 2 or face a daily fine of £100.
Suzanne Cater, director of enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Companies – no matter where they are based – are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the UK. And society has long protected young people from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different.
“The UK is setting new standards for online safety. Age checks and risk assessments are the cornerstone of our laws, and we will take strong enforcement action against companies that fall short.”
payment of fine
We have issued 16 fines under the Online Safety Act against six companies, totaling almost £4 million, many of which have not yet passed their deadlines to pay. The Act states that we must allow companies a reasonable time to pay the fine, which should be a minimum of 28 days.[2]
If a company fails to pay the fine, we have several options open to us to recover that debt – including the courts.
Where appropriate, we may also seek a court order for ‘business interruption measures’ if a provider fails to comply with its security duties, such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring internet service providers to block a site in the UK.
Notes to editors
- More information on jurisdiction is available here.
- See section 137(5)(e) and (6) of the Online Security Act.
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