Source: Ofcom published on this website Monday 23 September 2026 by Jill Powell
Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, sites that allow pornographic material must use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from readily accessing that content.
Within days of this duty coming into force in July 2025, Ofcom launched investigations into the providers of dozens of adult sites, including 8579 LLC. These websites were prioritised based on their user numbers.
Following investigation, we have fined 8579 LLC £1.35 million for failing to comply with these age check requirements. The company must immediately implement highly effective age assurance or face a daily penalty of £1,000.
Gathering accurate information from companies is fundamental to our job of making life safer online for people in the UK. These requests can help us to assess and monitor industry compliance with their safety duties, and firms are required, by law, to respond in an accurate, complete and timely way.
For failing to abide by these requirements, we have also fined 8579 LLC £50,000. We will impose a daily penalty of £250 on the company until it responds, or for 60 days, whichever is sooner.
George Lusty, Director of Enforcement at Ofcom, said:
“We’ve been clear that adult sites must deploy robust age checks to protect children in the UK from seeing porn. Those that fail to do this – or ignore legally binding requests from us – should expect to face fines.”
