25th July 2025, a landmark moment for online safety in the UK.
The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) is bringing in new rules designed to protect children from harmful content online, and that includes pornography. Starting on 25th July 2025 – also known as Age Verification Day in the UK – any service that publishes or hosts pornographic content will be required to implement highly effective age assurance measures to ensure that under-18s aren’t able to access it.
This marks the end of outdated, ineffective methods like tick-box age declarations or “Yes, I’m over 18” buttons. Under the new rules, platforms must demonstrate that they prevent minors from accessing harmful material.
Who’s responsible?
The responsibility for enforcing these new requirements lies with Ofcom, the UK’s online safety regulator. Under the OSA, Ofcom divides adult content services into two key categories.
- Part 5 Services: Platforms that publish their own pornographic content (e.g. studios and pay sites, where operators control the material available).
- Part 3 Services: Sites that host user-generated pornographic content (e.g. tube sites, fan platforms, cam sites). This also includes social media sites that allow pornographic content.
What’s the timeline?
There is a clear timeline for implementation.
By December 2024, platforms had to begin assessing risks related to illegal content. In January 2025, Ofcom released guidance outlining what adult content providers must do to comply with the age assurance requirements.
From April 2025, providers began conducting children’s risk assessments in line with the newly published Protection of Children Codes.
These risk assessments had to be completed within three months – leading to the final compliance deadline of the implementation of highly effective age assurance by 25th July 2025.
What does highly effective age assurance mean?
So, what exactly is “highly effective age assurance”? According to Ofcom, any age check solution must meet four key criteria: it must be technically accurate, robust, reliable, and fair. Crucially, it should also clearly distinguish children from adults – and do so in a way that respects user privacy, especially for adults legally accessing adult content.
Ofcom has referenced a non-exhaustive list of methods considered to be highly effective at determining age. At Verifymy, we offer five privacy-preserving solutions that align with Ofcom’s expectations and give platforms flexible, inclusive options for checking user age. These include:
- Email-based age estimation, which analyses where an email address has previously been used, such as with banks, mortgage lenders, or utility providers.
- Facial age estimation, which analyses the features of a user’s face via a selfie video to determine age.
- ID scan with face match, which verifies a user’s government-issued ID and matches the face in the document against a live selfie video.
- Credit card checks, which use card authorisation to confirm the user holds an adult-only payment method.
- Mobile number checks, which verify that a phone number belongs to, and is in the possession of someone aged 18+.
These technologies are designed not only to meet legal obligations, but minimise user friction, avoid unnecessary data collection, and prioritise privacy at every step.
The path to compliance
As Age Verification Day approaches, the message to platforms is clear: If your service allows pornography and under-18s can reach it, you must act now. This isn’t just a regulatory checkbox; it’s a real-world safeguard for children and a long-overdue upgrade to how children are protected online.
At Verifymy, we give platforms the tools they need to meet these regulatory requirements head-on. We will continue to work with adult content providers to educate and reassure users on the importance of privacy-preserving methods that safeguard minors from inappropriate content while protecting the privacy of adults wishing to view adult content.
If your platform needs help preparing for compliance, please get in touch.
