LONDON — U.K. media regulator Ofcom is investigating First Time Videos, which operates the sites FTVGirls.com and FTVMilfs.com, for possible failure to comply with age assurance requirements under the Online Safety Act.
Under the OSA, sites that publish pornography must have “highly effective” age checks in place to prevent minors from accessing adult content.
“We will now gather and analyze evidence to determine whether any contraventions have occurred,” Ofcom announced in a statement.
If the agency’s assessment indicates compliance failures, it will issue a “provisional notice of contravention” to which First Time Videos can then respond.
The agency’s enforcement powers include imposing fines of up to 18 million pounds or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, seeking a court order requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or even requiring ISPs to block access to a site in the U.K.
In May, Ofcom announced similar actions involving Itai Tech Ltd. and Score Internet Group LLC. The agency later announced actions involving Kick Online Entertainment, but those actions relate to issues other than age verification — specifically, alleged failures to conduct a requisite risk assessment and to respond to requests for information.
“Wherever in the world a service is based, if it has ‘links to the U.K.,’ it now has duties to protect U.K. users,” Ofcom stated. “This can mean having a significant number of U.K. users, if the U.K. is a target market, or if a service is capable of being used by people in the U.K. and poses a material risk of significant harm to them.”
