As you might have read recently, Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s regulatory agency covering the broadcasting, telecommunications and internet sectors, has opened an investigation into whether TikTok is complying with the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA).

While TikTok is nobody’s idea of a “porn site,” sexually explicit content does get uploaded to TikTok, despite doing so being against both the platform’s terms and conditions and its community guidelines. (Specifically, the TikTok’s community guidelines prohibit “some types of body exposure or sexual behavior, including nudity, sexual activity, sexual services, or any sexually suggestive behavior or significant exposure involving young people.”)

Ofcom, of course, doesn’t particularly care what the TikTok terms say, or what the company’s intent might be in terms of keeping porn off the platform and/or protecting minors from harmful content. For Ofcom, the mere fact a minor canaccess what the agency deems to be “inappropriate” or “harmful” suggests a platform isn’t fully compliant with the OSA.

The big issue here appears to be that while TikTok is doing something to assess the age of users, its methods don’t satisfy the standard as determined by Ofcom.

“Our message to social media companies is clear: those which use age inference models to comply with their child protection duties should switch to other methods listed in our guidance as highly effective without delay,” Ofcom said in an announcement assessing the efficacy of the OSA in the initial months since it became enforceable.

The UK is also mulling the possibility of introducing a social media ban for users under the age of 16. If enacted, clearly this ban will mean ‘mainstream’ platforms like TikTok will need to employ more stringent age verification methods, as Ofcom has made clear that “age inference” models simply won’t cut it.

I suspect what we’re seeing in the UK right now will spread around the globe in the months and years to come, creating a version of the internet quite unlike the one we’ve been using for the last 30+ years. As I see it, where this is headed is universal age verification requirements for all platforms that permit “user generated content” to be uploaded or otherwise published in their ecosystems.

As has been the case with the internet since it first crawled out of the cyber-primordial ooze of the ARPANET, the difficulty in regulating online content boils down to the fact that just about anyone can upload just about anything to any site or platform that allows them to do so.

In the earliest days of my online explorations, message boards and Usenet groups were flooded with dodgy content, from pilfered intellectual property to hate speech and all points in between. There was virtually no regulation (or at least none that clearly applied to this new digital environment) at the time, so for end users it was “surfer beware” out there, effectively.

These days, we’re flooded with regulations, from state and local governments trying to tame the internet as accessed by their citizens to national governments seemingly trying to throw an age-gated blanket over the entire world wide web.

For the people who support these measures, I suppose no amount of inconvenience to adults is unjustified in their quest to protect children online. And while I can understand that perspective, the question is, how far will regulators go to make marginal gains toward their goal?

In the statement published last week, Ofcom noted something that jumped out at me: “Among the minority of online children who attempt to access pornography (8%), the presence of age checks acts as an effective deterrent.”

Previously, Ofcom cited a study which reported that “Twitter was the online platform where young people were most likely to have seen pornography.”

Put those two statements together and you can see where this is heading. If porn sites aren’t where most kids are being exposed to porn, then agencies like Ofcom are going to turn more of their attention to non-adult platforms, like TikTok, X, Snapchat and others of their ilk.

The bottom line, as I read it, is this: If you operate a platform that allows users to upload content, you will eventually be roped in by age verification regulations, whether it’s the OSA being enforced by Ofcom, or one of the other (eventually countless) regulations and agencies cropping up around the world.

There’s one small problem, though. While the web may seem more ‘tamed’ now than it did in the 1990s, the modern internet still has something important in common with its ancestral forms: All it takes to launch a new website or platform is the will to do it and at least one internet-connected device. What gets shut down on Monday morning can be back up later the same morning, albeit at a different IP address.

As such, the government-led game of Whack-A-Mole by law and regulation will continue to aim at moving targets, even as new targets appear in the wake of those they’ve already shot down.

Good luck with your enforcement regime, Ofcom. And good luck to all those platforms who try in good faith to comply with their rules. Meanwhile, cyber criminals will simply continue to dodge the mallet and pop up somewhere else.

LONDON—Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s digital regulator, announced Wednesday that it is investigating TikTok as it released its first report on age-verification use since the country’s Online Safety Act took effect last summer.

Over the past year, major digital platforms operating in the U.K. have rolled out age checks at what Ofcom described as an “unprecedented scale.” The regulator said more than 69 million checks have been completed across 32 platforms.

Ofcom said the measures are an important step as the country considers a ban on social media use for people aged 16 and under. Among adult-entertainment platforms and pornography websites, the 10 most popular sites in the U.K. and most of the top 100 porn sites have introduced age checks. Ofcom said the share of minors asked to verify their age before accessing a site rose from 25 percent in July 2025 to 43 percent in January 2026.

Ofcom noted, “Among the minority of online children who attempt to access pornography (8%), the presence of age checks acts as an effective deterrent. Half of these children only reached sites with age checks in place. Nearly nine in ten of these children’s visits (87%) to porn sites were for under 30 seconds, and 65% were for less than 10 seconds.”

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, praised the agency’s work.

“Age checks are a cornerstone of the U.K.’s online safety laws,” she said. “When implemented properly, our evidence shows that age checks are helping to create a safer life online for children in the U.K.

“But the job is not done, and tech companies need to go further. Too many services have no or inadequate age checks in place, which is not good enough,” Dawes added.

Dawes said Ofcom has opened an investigation into TikTok. The video-sharing platform is also used by adult-industry creators and companies to promote scenes and productions. The new enforcement effort also includes search engines such as Google and Bing.

She explained, “We’ve today launched an investigation into whether TikTok’s age checks are effective in preventing children from seeing harmful content on its platform. And search engines must urgently work with us to solve the problem of children finding porn sites without age checks too easily via their results pages.

“As the U.K. prepares for further new social media restrictions at 16, the age check landscape is already shifting towards a stronger, whole-of-system approach, which is important to avoid any single point of failure,” Dawes concluded.

“We want to see continued innovation from the wider tech industry to strengthen protections for children—including from operating systems and at an app store and device-level.”

A TikTok spokesperson said the company “strictly enforces age-appropriate experiences through expert-informed platform rules and advanced age inference technologies, in line with major industry peers.” The spokesperson added that TikTok is “confident” it complies with the requirements.

Any time someone says they favor “family values,” I wince a little – not because I am against families, of course, but because almost invariably, that person is talking about a specific kind of family, with a specific sort of ‘values.’

Generally, when people talk about family values, they mean a family with two heterosexual parents, at least a couple children and an inclination towards Bible-reading. (For the record, the family I grew up in was two for three on that family values matrix, as the Bible never made the family reading list, alas.)

Take anti-porn crusader and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, for example. Dobson wasn’t one to mince words when it came to what constituted a ‘real’ family. When then-President Jimmy Carter set up a Conference on Families that included a “diversity of families” Dobson lost his shit. Only the “traditional” family unit – with a male head of household who brings home the bacon and a female caregiver who then fries the bacon and dutifully feeds it to her husband and spawn – ought to be endorsed, or even recognized, by the government, as Dobson saw it.

Dobson’s presence on my list of people and organizations who deserve ‘credit’ for starting the modern War on Porn isn’t because he thought just about anything other than a conservative Christian value set to be anathema, however. He’s here because included in his ceaseless lobbying and activism in favor of a variety of socially conservative policy positions was his drive to convince people pornography was among the roots of all evil.

To establish just how Very Bad porn is, Dobson went straight to the most credible, respected expert he could find: Convicted serial killer Ted Bundy.

Now, some might say the statements of a guy like Ted Bundy shouldn’t be given a whole lot of weight, in part because at different times, he made contradicting claims when asked the same sort of questions. But all Dobson cared about was that Bundy was willing to go on record saying that violent pornography had played a big role in shaping and driving his fantasies. Acting out those fantasies is what made him a serial killer, ergo – in the world of Dobson logic, at least – watching porn turns people into rapists and killers!

As noted by one of his many critics, Dobson’s interview with Bundy was “widely discredited as little more than a Dobson being willingly and eagerly duped by Bundy’s pathological manipulation. But Bundy’s fabricated narrative fit perfectly with Dobson’s view that it was the unchecked liberal, un-Christian, feminist, sex-crazed, anything-goes social context that led to the breakdown of society and created serial killers.”

One doesn’t have to put much thought into the “porn makes men into serial killers” argument to know it’s utter hogwash, of course. While it’s not true that researchers have been unable to find any men who haven’t watched porn to serve as control group subjects, it is doubtlessly true that a lot of men (and women) watch porn. It’s also true, I think it safe to say, comparatively few men become murderers or rapists.

No question, our society has far too many of both murderers and rapists, but if it was true that prolonged exposure to porn makes people into killers and rapists, that sort of clear causal connection would mean we had a great many more rapists and killers in our midst, surely. Not only is Dobson’s claim one that can’t stand up to rigorous scrutiny, but it also can’t even stand up to momentary rumination.

I’m sure Dobson wasn’t troubled by the criticism of his interview with Bundy, or even particularly concerned with whether Bundy was telling the truth about anything covered in their conversation. The Bundy interview tapes reportedly generated over a million bucks in revenue for Focus on the Family, the bulk of which it donated to anti-porn and anti-abortion groups.

Dobson continued his activism through the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute (founded in 2010) through 2022, when he handed off the reins to the organization’s new president. He continued to record his radio show, Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, and his frequent appearances on Fox News, though, until shortly before his death in August 2025.

Dobson’s advocacy lives on, of course, through the various organizations he founded and a new generation of self-righteous, censorious social conservatives – each of whom I’m sure is just as certain as Dobson that their definition of “family values” is the only one that matters.

CANBERRA, Australia—Australia’s digital regulator has told Parliament it will examine whether widely available virtual private networks, or VPNs, are being used to bypass the country’s age-verification rules for pornography websites.

Budget documents submitted to the Australian Senate in May show that eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s office is concerned that platforms covered by technology industry codes may still be receiving web traffic from IP addresses in Australia that has not gone through age verification.

“Under the codes, there are requirements that service providers must take reasonable steps to prevent workarounds like VPNs so eSafety will look at this when considering compliance with codes,” the budget documents state. The documents include an appropriations proposal for Grant’s office.

The concern follows Australian search-engine data from March showing increased interest in the terms “VPN” and “virtual private network.” The rise came as authorities began enforcing age-verification requirements for age-restricted platforms and moved to restrict social media access for minors.

The introduction of the under-16 social-media ban affected a broad range of online services in Australia. Around the same period, Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, said its platforms would be restricted in Australia to comply with the new laws.

Industry codes in Australia require the parent companies of online pornography providers to establish and enforce “appropriate age assurance measures.” Those measures can include identity checks, credit-card verification, artificial-intelligence-assisted biometric age estimation, and other methods.

VPNs, however, have long been used to bypass content blocks and age-verification rules in Australia, the United States, and other countries.

Grant’s office told members of the Australian Senate that it is working on ways to limit unverified VPN traffic.

“This is similar to eSafety’s regulatory guidance for the social media minimum age, where eSafety considers VPN detection as a reasonable step to prevent underage users from having an account,” the documents submitted by Grant’s office state.

“[The] Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport, and the Arts knows that tech companies can tell when a VPN is in use.”

Controversial adult film actress Cherie DeVille has entered into a public spat with Bank of America over the closure of her personal and business accounts. According to the actor, this act of closing her account is politically motivated and is against a federal executive order designed to prevent such actions.

The Video That Sparked the Conflict

The conflict started last week when DeVille put up a video on Instagram detailing her experience.

“So Bank of America has just fired me as a customer,” she claimed. “I know that is crazy because after literally years of banking with them, they closed all of my accounts, my personal accounts, uh, my business accounts, not because I committed fraud or did something illegal, not because I owe them money, but because I’m an adult content creator. That’s it. That’s the entire reason.”

DeVille explained that the industry should not be taken into consideration, as she works legally.

“Whether you personally approve of my job or not is kind of beside the point because at the end of the day, I work in a completely legal business,” she argued. “I pay my taxes, I have employees, I run a company, and I, like all legal businesses, deserve access to banking just like any other law-abiding American.

She called this act “debanking” and pointed to the fact that such kind of behavior is quite common for those working in the legal but controversial industries. She also reminded that there was an executive order signed by President Trump in this regard, although this order did not mention her particular field of work.

“It simply says, if you’re operating a legal business and following the law, you shouldn’t lose access to banking just because somebody doesn’t like what you do, doesn’t agree with your line of legal work,” she said.

According to DeVille, she managed to find another bank, but not everyone could have this opportunity.

“Thankfully, I have already been able to find another bank, and that’s great for me, but not everybody has that privilege,” she explained. “So let me know in the comments if this has happened to you or somebody you know, and if you think that banks should continue to get away with this, just ripping people’s accounts away for no reason other than they don’t like your job.”

Bank of America Statement

After the video went viral, a Bank of America spokesperson said that DeVille’s profession had nothing to do with the closure of her accounts.

“We are subject to federal regulations that require us to monitor account activity. In this case, the account was closed based on recent transactional activity and not because of any industry or profession.”

DeVille Wasn’t Done Yet

This response did not satisfy DeVille, and she published a screenshot on X of the message that Bank of America allegedly sent her. The message stated the following:

“We have carefully reviewed your concerns, and we wanted you to know that we are subject to federal regulations that require us to monitor account activity. In this case, the accounts were closed based on recent transactional activity. We’ve also sent a letter to your email and your mailing address on file.”

DeVille denied this reasoning.

“This is the BS that @bankofamerica sent me. They’re lying. I have never done anything illegal. I have never done a single illegal transaction,” DeVille wrote. “They targeted me for political reasons despite @realdonaldtrump executive order banning debanking.”

In another post, DeVille admitted that her PR team asked her to tone down her actions.

“My mainstream PR just called, asking me to compromise. (Can’t get into details, but I suspect he spoke to people in power.) I love my PR guy, but BOA debanked hundreds of legal adult content creators I know,” she tweeted. “I won’t back down till BOA follows Trump’s executive order. THIS IS WAR!”

She also posted another message to the bank on X.

“The idiots at @BankofAmerica think I’m a dumb hoe,” DeVille tweeted. “Unfortunately I’m an articulate, wealthy p*rn star who chooses to hire multiple mainstream PR consultants. I will speak out against BOA till they follow Trump’s executive order. I will have more surprises for BOA soon. #WAR”

Bank of America responded to Cherie DeVille’s tweets, stating that her profession had nothing to do with the closure of her accounts.

LONDON — The United Kingdom’s digital regulator, Ofcom, has imposed another substantial fine on an online adult entertainment platform, saying it failed to meet the country’s age verification requirements.

The operator of the media-sharing website Fapello.com has been fined £630,000, or roughly $850,000 based on current exchange rates. In announcing the penalty Thursday, the regulator said the fine stemmed from “not having age checks in place, and … for failing to respond to a legally binding information request on time.”

“Robust age checks are a cornerstone of the U.K.’s Online Safety Act,” the agency said. “Sites that host pornographic material must use ‘highly effective’ age assurance to determine whether a particular user is over 18, in order to prevent children from readily accessing that content.”

The regulator imposed a £600,000 fine for failing to comply with the age assurance requirements, along with an additional £30,000 penalty for not responding to official information requests within the required timeframe.

“Age checks are no longer optional for porn sites in the U.K.,” said George Lusty, the regulator’s director of enforcement. “They are a cornerstone of our laws to protect children from content they should not be seeing.”

The regulator also announced Thursday that it has opened an investigation into the operators of Eporner.com. The platform is operated by parent company Bit Hive, a shell company linked to the owners of a business based in Germany and Poland.

“Our investigation will examine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that Bit Hive has failed, or is failing, to comply with the section 12 duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’), which requires providers to prevent children from encountering pornographic content by implementing highly effective age assurance,” the regulator said in its notice.

The investigation into Eporner.com remains ongoing.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri has become the latest state to formally place age verification requirements for pornography websites into state law.

Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a package of public safety bills on Thursday that included House Bill 1839, the age verification measure introduced by Republican state Rep. Sherri Gallick of Belton.

The legislation was sponsored in the Missouri Senate during the most recent legislative session by Republican State Sen. Mike Henderson of Cape Girardeau.

“The legislation I signed today strengthens the laws that protect our families, supports the men and women who serve our country and communities, and gives our state stronger tools to keep dangerous criminals off our streets,” Gov. Kehoe said in a statement announcing the bill package.

Under House Bill 1839, any website where at least 33 percent of its content is considered harmful to minors or classified as pornographic must verify the age of its users. The requirement applies not only to adult websites but also to mainstream social media platforms, including Reddit and X, if they meet the law’s threshold.

Missouri’s attorney general will enforce the law through civil actions. Violations can result in penalties of up to $10,000 per day, with an additional fine of $250,000 if minors are found to have accessed age-restricted content.

The law is scheduled to take effect on Aug. 28, nearly two months after the close of the state’s fiscal year on June 30. Missouri officials had previously pursued age verification through a regulatory action issued in 2025 by then-Attorney General Andrew Bailey, an effort later supported by his successor, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway. Lawmakers ultimately chose to place the requirement into state statute in an effort to strengthen its standing against potential legal challenges in state court.