Age verification is serious business, and it costs this company $1.3 million.

The United Kingdom’s media regulator Ofcom has issued its largest penalty to date under the country’s new Online Safety Act (OSA), fining AVS Group Ltd. one million pounds, roughly 1.3 million dollars, for failing to implement robust age assurance measures across 18 pornography websites. The agency also imposed an additional £50,000 fine on the company for its failure to respond to legally binding information requests.

The ruling caps a months-long investigation launched shortly after the OSA’s age-check requirements took effect in July. Ofcom prioritized platforms with high U.K. traffic, including AVS Group, which operates some of the country’s most frequently visited adult websites. In October, Ofcom signaled that it had “reasonable grounds” to conclude the company was in breach, and gave AVS 20 working days to respond. According to the regulator, the company either had no age checks at all or deployed measures that were easily bypassed.

From 25 July through at least 25 November 2025, Ofcom found that AVS either failed to implement age assurance or used ineffective tools. In particular, the company relied on a simple “photo upload” system without liveness detection, meaning minors could upload any image of an adult and still be granted access.

“Ofcom considers that this method is not capable of being highly effective within the meaning of the Act,” the agency wrote.

The 18 websites found in violation include pornzog.com, txxx.com, upornia.com, hdzog.com, thegay.com, ooxxx.com, hotmovs.com, hclips.com, vjav.com, pornl.com, voyeurhit.com, manysex.com, tubepornclassic.com, shemalez.com, and their associated .tube domains.

Under the OSA, pornography sites must block minors using “highly effective” age assurance tools, a standard designed to rule out superficial checks and require systems resistant to circumvention. AVS now has 72 hours to bring its sites into compliance or face an additional £1,000 daily penalty. It will also be charged £300 per day, for up to 60 days, until it responds to Ofcom’s unanswered information requests.

The fine is part of Ofcom’s widening crackdown on platforms that fail to comply with the OSA. Since the rules took effect in July, the regulator has opened investigations into 92 online services. Of these, 83 are pornography sites. Several more fines are expected, according to Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s group director of online safety, who called the action part of a “broader tide turning” toward strict enforcement.

Ofcom also said an unnamed major social media platform may soon face formal action for submitting inadequate risk assessments — a legal requirement for evaluating the likelihood that illegal content, such as fraudulent material or illegal pornography, will be shown to users. Another major platform is under review for failing to remove illegal terror and hate content.

The OSA gives Ofcom wide enforcement authority, including the ability to levy fines up to £18 million or 10% of a company’s global revenue, require advertisers and payment processors to cut ties with noncompliant platforms, and order U.K. internet service providers to block access entirely.

More than half of the 100 most-visited adult sites in the U.K. have now implemented age checks, according to Ofcom. Social platforms, including X, TikTok, and Reddit, have also adopted stricter measures. While VPN usage surged when the rules went live, jumping from around 600,000 to over one million, Griffiths said the spike appears to be leveling off, and research suggests minors are not the primary users driving the increase.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall praised the fine, saying Ofcom has the government’s “full backing” to ensure platforms take responsibility for user safety. “Keeping children safe online is this government’s and my personal priority,” she said.

Ofcom’s investigation into AVS represents one of the clearest signals yet that the regulator intends to enforce the OSA’s provisions aggressively and that adult platforms failing to meet the law’s “highly effective” standard should expect substantial penalties in the months ahead.