Five porn sites identified in LBC investigation among 34 being examined over age checks
Four companies that run adult websites are being investigated over whether they have put in place age checks to protect children - after the issue was highlighted in an LBC investigation.
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Five of the websites under a new investigation were brought to the attention of the watchdog by LBC earlier this week as still being accessible to children - despite the new law coming into effect.
Investigations into the compliance of the four companies - which collectively run 34 pornography sites - will look at whether new age-check requirements are being met under the UK's Online Safety Act, the regulator Ofcom said.
Ofcom said it had opened formal investigations into whether 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd had highly effective age checks in place to protect children from encountering pornography across 34 websites.
The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers.
Collectively, the websites had more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, Ofcom said.
The new cases add to Ofcom's 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, an online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, First Time Videos LLC and Itai Tech Ltd.
Ofcom said it expected to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.
New online safety protections for children came into force on July 25.
Since that date, so-called "risky" sites and apps have been expected to use what the regulator has described as highly effective age checks to identify which users are children and subsequently prevent them from accessing pornography, as well as other harmful content including self-harm, suicide, eating disorders and extreme violence.
In a statement, Ofcom said: "Where we identify compliance failures, we can require platforms to take specific steps to come into compliance.
"We can also impose fines of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.
"Where appropriate, in the most serious cases, we can seek a court order for business disruption measures, such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring internet service providers to block access to a site in the UK."