LONDON — U.K media regulator Ofcom is encouraging all members of the adult industry, including companies, creators and other stakeholders, to provide feedback to help it establish new regulations under the recent Online Safety Act — regulations that will impact the accessibility of online adult content.
Ofcom has made the consultation process public through its website. The deadline for responses is March 5 at 5 p.m. GMT.
Ofcom will publish the results of the consultation — titled “Guidance for service providers publishing pornographic content” — as part of its work to establish the new OSA-compliant regulations.
“The Online Safety Act is clear that service providers publishing pornographic content online must implement age assurance which is highly effective at correctly determining whether or not a user is a child to prevent children from normally encountering their online pornographic content,” Ofcom stated.
Ofcom is conducting four major consultations. The first is an “illegal harms” consultation, which focuses on the new criminal offenses resulting from the OSA, some of which will affect adult websites. As XBIZ reported, the deadline for that consultation is Feb. 23.
The second is “Guidance for service providers publishing pornographic content,” which focuses on its draft guidance “to assist providers of online services that publish or display regulated provider pornographic content in complying with their age assurance and record-keeping duties under the Act.”
For the “Guidance for service providers publishing pornographic content” consultation, Ofcom has also published a simplified explainer for stakeholders.
To respond to the proposals in the consultation, stakeholders are instructed to download and complete the consultation response form and submit it to Part5Guidance@ofcom.org.uk, including any supporting information or evidence with the response.
