The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
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It’s the kind of enforcement story that lands with a thud, not a gasp. No surprise raid. No dramatic shutdown. Just a regulator, a spreadsheet, and a very large number at the bottom of the page.
Kick Online Entertainment S.A., the parent company of the controversial adult tube site Motherless.com, has been fined by the U.K.’s digital regulator Ofcom for failing to comply with age-verification requirements under the country’s Online Safety Act. The penalty tops £800,000 — just shy of $1.1 million — and it’s not the only fine involved.
According to a statement issued Tuesday, Ofcom said Kick Online repeatedly failed to meet age-verification obligations despite multiple attempts by the regulator to engage with the company. Motherless.com had previously been flagged several times as noncompliant, and those warnings, it seems, went nowhere.
On top of that, Kick Online is accused of ignoring formal information requests from the regulator, triggering an additional £30,000 fine — roughly $40,876. It’s the regulatory equivalent of getting ticketed for speeding and then fined again for refusing to pull over.
“Having highly effective age checks on adult sites to protect children from pornographic content is non-negotiable. Any company that fails to meet this duty—or engage with us—can expect to face robust enforcement action, including significant fines,” said Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s director of enforcement.
“We continue to investigate other sites under the U.K.’s age check rules and will take further action where necessary,” Cater added. Ofcom also noted that while Kick Online has made attempts to implement age checks, those measures fall short of the “highly effective” standard required under the Online Safety Act. Close doesn’t count anymore.
A significant portion of the penalties relates to noncompliance spanning July through December 2025 — months that now read less like a timeline and more like a paper trail. And as enforcement ramps up, one thing feels increasingly clear: regulators aren’t asking politely anymore.
