Porn site age checks signal challenges for UK social media ban
By Imogen Howse and Patricia Figueiredo ( August 3, 2026, 09:02 GMT | Comment) -- One year after the UK's Online Safety Act introduced mandatory age checks for pornography platforms, compliance among the most popular sites is high. But evidence suggests compliance alone may not reduce children's exposure to harmful content, as enforcement remains difficult and some users are simply migrating to unregulated services. These challenges provide an early indication of the regulatory obstacles the UK government may face as it prepares to implement its upcoming social media ban for under-16s.Pornography websites have introduced age checks at unprecedented scale since the UK's Online Safety Act, or OSA, made them mandatory one year ago. But the regime's limitations — as well as the tensions between the regulator and regulated companies — are now becoming clearer....
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