One Year of UK Age Checks: What Ofcom’s Report Means for OnlyFans Creators
69 million age checks, traffic falling on checked sites and rising on unchecked ones, 23 investigations. The numbers from Ofcom’s first age assurance report, and what they mean for creators.
Written by Jonathan F. Published
On 15 July 2026, Ofcom published its first report on age checks under the Online Safety Act, a year after UK porn services had to start using them. It is the best data anyone has on how UK fans now get to adult content.
Here are the numbers that matter, and what they mean if you sell content to a UK audience. Every figure is from the report itself.
In this guide
The numbers at a glance
- 69 million+ age checks were completed from July to December 2025 across the 32 services Ofcom analysed. That is 23 times the previous six months, and Ofcom says the true UK total is likely higher.
- 64 of the top 100 porn sites had age checks by June 2026, up from 41 in August 2025. All of the top 10 do.
- 68% of completed checks on porn services were facial age estimation, July to November 2025. Digital ID services were just 2%.
- 23 investigations into providers of 88 adult services. 73% of those services have since added age checks or blocked UK users.
- 7 providers fined for 24 sites, including 8579 LLC (£1.35m), AVS Group Ltd (£1m), Kick Online Entertainment S.A. (£800k) and Youngtek Solutions Ltd (£500k).
Traffic moved, it did not disappear
Ofcom says many porn sites that introduced age checks “have experienced sharp declines in user traffic”. Some of that traffic went elsewhere. Of 17 sites without age checks that Ofcom looked at, 10 saw estimated traffic rise, by between about 8% and 365%.
Ofcom puts the drop down to three things: people moving to sites without checks, people using fewer age-checked sites, and some VPN use. It also notes that the lost traffic has hurt revenue for ad-funded porn sites.
For creators the takeaway is simple. The fans who are willing to verify are still there. The revenue damage Ofcom describes is on ad-funded sites; the report says nothing about subscription platforms.
How UK fans actually verify
Facial age estimation is the method most services offer, ahead of photo ID matching, and it made up 68% of completed checks on porn services. For a fan, that usually means a quick selfie scan rather than uploading a passport.
That matters for conversion. If you promote to UK audiences, make sure your link takes fans straight to your page, so the check is the only extra step between them and subscribing.
Search engines are the weak spot
The report’s sharpest finding is about search. 62% of children who visited porn sites used a search engine immediately beforehand. On Google, 33% of first-page results for general porn searches went to sites without age protections, and 78% of searches about getting around checks returned at least one such site. On Bing the figures were 54% and 83%. Ofcom says these early figures should not be compared with each other.
Ofcom’s position is that “the compliance obligations rest on user-to-user services themselves”, but that protecting children needs search engines, operating systems and app stores too. Expect pressure on search next.
VPNs: smaller than the headlines
Five per cent of children surveyed said they had used a VPN in the past six months to get to age-restricted content or features. Ofcom says that may understate real use. It is a real gap, but the report shows search results and unchecked sites as the bigger ones.
What it means for OnlyFans creators
- The platform does the checking. Age assurance is OnlyFans’ duty, not yours. You do not need your own system for UK fans.
- UK fans see the check, not you. They have to pass it before they see adult content. You do not have to ask anyone for ID.
- Do not chase traffic from unchecked sites. Ofcom is investigating them and fining their owners. Being linked from them is not a promotion strategy.
- Watch search. If Ofcom pushes search engines to clean up results, adult search traffic in the UK will change again. Promotion on mainstream social platforms is the steadier route.
Our Online Safety Act guide covers the day-to-day changes for UK creators, and our Ofcom and OnlyFans timeline covers everything the regulator has done about OnlyFans itself, including the £1.05 million fine.
What Ofcom does next
- A rapid assessment of over-16 age verification by the end of October 2026.
- A report on app stores by January 2027.
- A push for search engines, operating systems and app stores to do more, which Ofcom says is needed to protect children.
Ofcom also says services should follow its guidance on highly effective age assurance in full, check their age-check vendors regularly and meet their privacy obligations.
Sources
All figures and quotes are from Report on the use of age assurance (Ofcom, 15 July 2026, prepared under section 157 of the Online Safety Act 2023). Ofcom copyright, reproduced under Ofcom’s copyright and re-use terms. This is our summary, not legal advice, and Ofcom has not reviewed or endorsed it.
Questions creators ask
Ofcom counted over 69 million completed age checks from July to December 2025 across the 32 services it analysed, and says the true UK total is likely higher.
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