The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
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It landed like a thud you could feel in your chest. An adult content network suddenly staring down a roughly $1.3 million penalty, and the quiet realization that the rules had shifted while everyone was still arguing about whether they ever would. In the wake of that fine, AVS Group has begun rolling out tougher age checks on some of its sites, responding to U.K. regulator pressure tied to the Online Safety Act.
A spokesperson for the regulator said the company has now put age-assurance tools in place on portions of its network that are “capable of being highly effective at correctly determining whether or not a user is a child.” That phrasing matters. It’s careful. And there’s a catch. The same spokesperson made it clear that further penalties are still on the table until the regulator is fully “satisfied” that changes have been made across every platform named in the investigation.
The fine itself followed an inquiry that found AVS Group had failed to implement robust age checks on 18 adult websites. According to the regulator, some of those sites had no age-assurance systems at all, while others relied on methods that simply didn’t meet the standard of being “highly effective.” It’s the kind of language that sounds dry on paper but carries real weight when money and access are on the line.
And the money isn’t the scariest part. Enforcement powers under the law stretch much further — fines that can climb to 18 million pounds or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever hits harder. There’s also the nuclear option: court orders that could force payment providers or advertisers to walk away, or even compel internet service providers to block a site entirely within the U.K. That’s not a slap on the wrist. That’s existential.
A request for comment has been sent to AVS Group’s parent company, TubeCorporate, but no response has been issued so far. Which leaves a lingering question hanging in the air: if this is what partial compliance looks like, what does “satisfied” actually mean — and who’s next to find out the hard way?
