Ofcom, UK’s communications regulator, is looking into OnlyFans because of worries that the company isn’t doing enough to prevent kids from viewing porn.
The website is well recognized for hosting sexual content and for enabling content creators to charge consumers for their content. The regulator believes that not enough is being done to prevent access to that material by persons who are younger than 18.
Despite claiming to be having technical difficulties, OnlyFans stated that it “works closely” with Ofcom to “implement and develop best-practices on online safety.” A representative for the company informed the BBC in a statement that it had encountered “a coding configuration issue” that had impacted some “age thresholds” on the website.
It did state that those cutoff points were always higher than 18. It went on, “OnlyFans identified the reporting error and proactively amended our report to Ofcom.”
When Ofcom announced its investigation, it expressed concern that the site had not put in place enough measures to verify users’ ages in order to stop anyone under the age of 18 from accessing “restricted material,” which included pornography. It noted that, as part of its inquiry, OnlyFans would be evaluated for whether or not it answered the regulator’s requests for information with accuracy and completeness.
