UK age checks expand rapidly but child safety gaps persist, Ofcom says
( July 16, 2026, 08:29 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: Gaps in age assurance are leaving children exposed to harmful content on social media and able to find porn sites without checks, UK regulator Ofcom said in a landmark report Thursday. The watchdog's long-awaited analysis into the use of age assurance found that age checks are being deployed at an unprecedented scale in the UK, with over 69 million checks completed across 32 services from July to December 2025, 23 times the previous six months. But it warned that age inference systems may be failing to identify significant numbers of children and should be replaced or supplemented unless providers can prove they are highly effective.Statement follows. Report attached....
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